Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey says Joe Biden should ‘carefully evaluate’ if he can beat Donald Trump

Gov. Maura Healey broke days of public silence Friday on President Joe Biden’s political situation following a damaging debate last month, saying in a statement that the president should “carefully evaluate” if he can beat former President Donald Trump.

The comment, released through a political spokesperson, comes a day after The New York Times reported Healey said Biden’s position was “irretrievable” and as pressure continued to mount for the president to step aside to let someone else challenge Trump in November.

Healey said Biden “saved our democracy in 2020” and has done an “outstanding job” over the last four years.

“The best way forward right now is a decision for the President to make. Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” she said. “Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump.”

Only an hour and half later, Biden again said he was not dropping out.

“Let me say this as clearly as I can: I ‘m the sitting president of the United States. I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. I’m staying in the race,” the president said in a statement posted to social media.

A week after Biden’s disastrous 90-minute debate in which he offered halting and at times incoherent responses, the national Democratic Party has increasingly found itself grappling with whether the 81-year-old has the fortitude to serve another four years.

Healey has held out on publicly saying whether Biden should step aside, even after she traveled to Washington on Wednesday to participate in a closed-door meeting with the president and other Democratic governors, most of whom emerged from the event backing Biden.

Michael Goldman, a longtime Democratic strategist who has worked with Healey in the past, said her Friday statement on Biden “represents where many, if not most Democrats are right now.”

“I think her careful and considered response is a reflection of where a majority of Democrats in Massachusetts are right now, which is you want to be supportive of Biden if he can convince that remaining group of undecided voters that he can do the job. If he can’t, he’s got to be able to do the hard thing, which is to say, it’s someone else’s turn,” he told the Herald. “And that’s hard to do. That is not an easy thing to do.”

In an earlier call with governors, Healey reportedly said Biden’s political situation was “irretrievable,” a comment she made to White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and later relayed to governors during the Wednesday meeting, according to the Times.

It was a stark evaluation of the president from a top surrogate to his reelection campaign and a break from the other Democratic state executives. Healey has previously acknowledged Biden’s debate performance last month was “tough to watch” but sidestepped questions on a path forward.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills also reportedly raised concerns that people did not think Biden was up to the task of running against Trump, according to the Times.

Following the Wednesday meeting, another New England governor, Rhode Island’s Dan McKee, said he will continue to work with Biden “to campaign for a victory in November.”

“We had an open and candid discussion that was welcomed by the president,” McKee said in a statement. “Coming out of the meeting, it was very clear — President Biden continues to be all in on this election and we continue to be all in on supporting him.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said “all of us” pledged support to Biden because the “stakes could not be higher.”

“On the eve of the Fourth of July celebration, we talk about how we transitioned under the monarchy and a tyranny that our founding fathers fought against, that we risk right now descending back into that very same place. We will stand with the president as we fight that force, that force being Donald Trump,” she said.

A growing chorus of Democrats have raised doubts about Biden’s reelection chances in the wake of the debate and other comments the president has made, including that he fell asleep during the match-up against Trump and that he should curtail events past 8 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Salem Democrat, called on Biden to exit the race in an interview with WBUR, making him the third federal lawmaker to do so and the first from Massachusetts.

“President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our founding father, George Washington’s footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump,” Moulton told the radio station.

Biden has so far vowed to stay in the race.

“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running … no one’s pushing me out,” Biden said on a Wednesday call with staffers from his reelection campaign. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”

Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.