Just minutes after President Joe Biden’s so-called “big boy press conference” ended on Thursday night, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee called for him to step aside and allow another presidential nominee to take his place, presaging a potential flood of Democrats expected to similarly break ranks over the next few days.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) said in a statement that he no longer believed the strongest candidate to confront the threat posed by Donald Trump’s “promised MAGA authoritarianism” was Biden. “I hope that, as he has throughout a lifetime of public service, he will continue to put our nation first and, as he promised, make way for a new generation of leaders,” he said.
Posting his statement to X, Himes praised Biden for his record of public service, remarking that his legacy “as a great president” was secure. He urged the 81-year-old not to risk that legacy and American democracy itself in order “to soldier on in the face of the horrors promised by Donald Trump.”
