During an interview with BET News released on Wednesday, President Joe Biden cracked open the door to potentially dropping out of the race, saying he would re-evaluate his decision if “some medical condition emerged.”
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“If doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Biden said.
The comment comes as prominent Democrats, including Burbank Rep. Adam Schiff, call for the president to step aside. In a statement to KNX News, Schiff said he has “serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
But Rusty Hicks, chairman of the California Democratic Party, dodged the question of whether he believes Biden should drop out, telling KNX News Chief Correspondent Charles Feldman it’ll “be President Biden’s decision.”
“We'll obviously go towards the convention in mid-August, and I think we're gonna get about the work of holding the White House, making sure that we retake the House of Representatives and we do that right here in California,” he said.
Hicks said he’s “not trying to read between the lines” on whether Biden is starting to reconsider staying in the race. As for Schiff’s comments, he said the congressman “speaks for himself.”
“I know that California Democrats have been proud of the work that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have done and are looking forward to making sure that we hold the White House in November,” he said.
Political science professor Stephen Stambough told KNX News that calling for Biden to drop out right now is a bad strategic move.
“If this was really a problem, they should have dealt with this two years ago or a year ago. But doing it now is a no-win situation,” he said.
Stambough called it “perplexing” that so many Democrats are pushing the issue instead of moving on to a “more positive” narrative. He downplayed concerns about Biden’s cognitive abilities, describing his halting debate performance as a one-off.
“Biden's had a pretty energetic schedule since the debate, and has performed pretty well. Interviews, a really long press conference after a long day which was incredibly substantive, some fiery speeches and rallies,” he said. “Why focus on the one and not everything else?”
Biden has had several notable gaffes since the debate, such as introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” at the NATO summit, referring to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” and saying we should resolve our political differences at the “battle box.”
Stambough also downplayed Biden’s polling troubles, saying we won’t get a true temperature check of where the race is until after the Democratic convention in August.
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