Democrat doubts about Biden’s fitness grow

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democrats shocked by Joe Biden’s dismal debate performance urged the United States president on Tuesday to be transparent about his mental fitness as he faced the first call from his own partymates to drop out of the election.

Some supporters have expressed growing doubts about the 81-year-old’s candidacy after last week’s televised showdown with his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, when Biden stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought — exacerbating fears about his age.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democratic lawmaker to publicly call on Biden to make way for another candidate, saying he was hopeful the president would “make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw.”

Unfit? United States President Joe Biden gestures during a visit to the DC Emergency Operations Center in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 2024. AFP PHOTO

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, a Democratic Party heavyweight and former House of Representatives speaker, said it was “legitimate” to ask whether Biden’s debate disaster was indicative of a deeper problem, rather than a one-off.

Biden has not given a live interview since the debacle, but will be interviewed by ABC on Friday with the first clips released later that day.

On Tuesday, he blamed exhaustion from international travel for his debate flop.

At a fundraiser, Biden said he “wasn’t very smart” for “traveling around the world a couple times… shortly before the debate.”

“I didn’t listen to my staff,” he said. “And then I almost fell asleep on stage.”

‘Horrified’

Biden traveled to France from June 5 to 9 to commemorate the 1944 Allied landings, headed back to the US, and then flew to southern Italy for a Group of Seven summit, followed immediately by a visit to California.

He then returned home and went to a presidential retreat for several days of rest and preparation for the debate.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday admitted that the debate was “a bad night” but added that Biden “knows how to come back” from adversity.

She dismissed questions about him needing a cognitive test, and said the president would hold a press conference during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington next week.

The polling margins between the president and Trump have been razor-thin for months, with the convicted Republican showing a slight advantage.

Biden pushed for an unusually early first debate in hopes that he could jolt the race while there was still time, but the plan backfired.

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told WPRI-TV he was “pretty horrified” by the president’s performance during the 90-minute CNN matchup, watched by more than 50 million Americans.

Jared Golden, a vulnerable Democrat in a conservative-leaning House district, raised eyebrows with an op-ed piece in his local paper in Maine, in which he said Biden’s poor showing “was not a surprise.”

“The outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win,” he wrote.

The White House said Biden would meet with Democratic governors on Wednesday night.

One of them, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, explained that the governors had asked for the opportunity to hear from the president directly.

“Right now, Joe Biden is our nominee, and I’m 100 percent on board with supporting him as our nominee, unless he makes some other decision, and then I think we’re all going to be discussing what’s the best way forward,” he told CNN.