Over the weekend, shortly before a gunman fired on former President Trump, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told a crowd gathered at a New York fundraiser that if President Biden remained at the top of Democrats’ 2024 ticket, the party would suffer significant losses down-ballot.
The fundraiser, which was in East Hampton, was private and the congressman’s remarks were reported by the New York Times Tuesday.
“I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” Schiff said, according to the Times, which cited a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event. “And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.”
After the shooting, which injured Trump and killed at least one rallygoer, news reporting on Democratic calls for Biden to step down as the party’s presidential nominee had slowed to a trickle. The Times’ reporting on Schiff’s weekend remarks brought the issue back into the post-assassination-attempt news cycle.
Now, the California lawmaker, who is the leading Democrat for a Senate seat from the state with the largest population in the U.S. — a home state he just so happens to share with Vice President Kamala Harris — is taking his private remarks public.
In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Schiff called on the President to drop out due to Schiff’s “serious concerns” about his ability to beat Trump in the fall:
In his statement, Schiff said Biden “has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better.”
“But our nation is at a crossroads,” he said. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Schiff said the “choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone,” but that he believes it is time for Biden “to pass the torch” and “secure his legacy of leadership” by allowing another Democrat to beat Trump.
Sen. Pete Welch (D-VT) and more them a dozen members of the House have also called on Biden to step aside, but Schiff is perhaps the most high profile Democrat to do so so far.
It is all unclear what this will mean for the Democratic Party ticket.
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