Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker urged President Joe Biden to re-pitch himself to Americans following his disastrous performance at a presidential debate.
Pritzker, whose name has been floated as a possible candidate to replace Biden, discussed what he believes the president should do next during an interview Tuesday night on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
“Three-quarters of voters, U.S. voters, in a new CNN poll say the Democratic Party would have a better shot holding the presidency in 2024 with someone other than President Biden at the top of the ticket. Do you agree with that, or are the voters wrong?” Collins asked.
Since the debate last Thursday, one Democratic lawmaker has called for Biden to withdraw, while others have indicated their openness to backing another candidate. On Tuesday, a CNN poll found that Biden was polling worse against Trump than other top Democrats, including his own vice president. Those results appear to have lit a fire within the party, which was already scrambling.
“Well, I think that’s why President Biden needs to communicate more,” Pritzker replied. “We haven’t heard a lot from him since the debate, and that’s why the polls look as they do.
“I think that when you come off a bad debate, you need to remind people why you’re the right guy to elect, and I know that Joe Biden will do that over the next couple of weeks, at least I expect him to,” he continued.
“Or he’ll make a different decision, and I think that’s, again, this is a healthy conversation for us all to be having,” Pritzker said, seemingly referring to the decision to withdraw from the race.
“And I think that the president needs to communicate to everybody once again why he’s the right guy,” Pritzker said.
"I think the president needs to communicate to everybody once again why he's the right guy" -- JB Pritzker on CNN pic.twitter.com/OAajpGLmiO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 3, 2024
While Biden’s campaign has trotted him out at events, the president has spoken sparingly about what his lackluster public speaking performance means for his candidacy. Democratic leaders are reportedly extremely frustrated with the lack of communication from Biden’s team in the wake of the debate debacle, and have accused his inner circle of trying to shield him from calls to withdraw.
It seems that the Democratic governor may already be on track to get the face time with Biden he desires: Pritzker is expected to attend a meeting in Washington, D.C., with the president and other Democratic governors on Wednesday, according to Axios.
