Key quote:
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), a vulnerable House Democrat, is calling on President Biden to step aside in the 2024 race, becoming the eighth lawmaker in the lower chamber to publicly urge the incumbent to withdraw.
Ryan — who represents New York’s 18th Congressional District — told The New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that he does not believe Biden is the strongest Democrat to take on former President Trump in November.
“I’d be doing a grave disservice if I said he was the best candidate to serve this fall,” Ryan told the Times. “For the good of our country, for my two young kids, I’m asking Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming election and deliver on the promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders.”
I’m gonna take the opportunity to channel the takeaway from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show episode this week and encourage everyone to unify on the most logical way forward here: let’s actually have the damn convention, instead of just slotting Biden into the nomination in a perfunctory manner.
This is a shitty situation for a lot of reasons, but we can find a good outcome if we’re pragmatic about it.
- Biden doesn’t need to remove himself from the race - nor should he (personal note: this is despite how deeply dismayed I’ve personally become by how he’s handled the last few weeks)
- Biden MUST, however, stop just insisting that he’s the nominee. There should be a reasonable evaluation of the possibilities, and the best candidate should go on the ticket. That might be Biden, but it also might be someone else.
I agree, but there needs to be an acknowledgement that any kind of meaningful primary was prevented by the DNC coupled with this.
Biden MUST, however, stop just insisting that he’s the nominee. There should be a reasonable evaluation of the possibilities, and the best candidate should go on the ticket. That might be Biden, but it also might be someone else.
The same goes for Biden’s surrogates and apologists here and elsewhere. We can’t forget the constant drumbeat from Blue Maga here, insisting that Biden is the nominee when he isn’t and wasn’t and doesn’t need to be.