Five more House Democrats on Friday joined the growing number of congressional lawmakers who have called on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 election.
In a joint statement, Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Marc Veasey, D-Texas, Chuy Garcia, D-Illinois and Marc Pocan, D-Wisc., urged Biden to "pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders."
"Mr. President, with great admiration for you personally, sincere respect for your decades of public service and patriotic leadership, and deep appreciation for everything we have accomplished together during your presidency, it is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders," the lawmakers wrote.
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"We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy, protect our alliances and the rules-based international order, and continue building on the strong foundation you have established over the past four years," they said.
"At this point, however, we must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign. These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month's debate and are now unlikely to change. We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do in this moment is to step aside as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House."
Veasey is the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus, a group that has strongly backed Biden, to call for the president to step aside.
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A fifth House Democrat, Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois, separately urged Biden to drop out in an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune.
"It’s time for Joe Biden to pass the torch," Casten wrote.
"[P]olitics, like life, isn’t fair. And as long as this election is instead litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and ‘senior moments,’ I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation."
Additionally, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., on Friday called on Biden to suspend his presidential campaign. He is now the third Democratic senator to do so.
"While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden's alone, I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside," Heinrich said in a statement.
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There are now 28 Congressional Democrats who have called on Biden to step aside. That number represents more than 10% of elected Democrats in Congress.
Behind the scenes, more and more Democratic party officials, top donors and key Biden allies are reportedly urging the president to reconsider his decision to stay in the race. Should Biden drop out ahead of the Democratic National Committee convention in August, Vice President Kamala Harris is acknowledged to be in the best position to receive the party's nomination — although some Democrats fear she would also lose to Trump and prefer that a candidate unaffiliated with the current administration be nominated in an open convention.
Biden has made no public indication that he intends to step aside, and his campaign has forcefully denied all suggestions to the contrary.
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"Absolutely the president is in this race, you’ve heard him say that time and again," Biden Campaign Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon said Friday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"I’m not here to say this hasn’t been a tough several weeks for the campaign, there’s no doubt that it has been, and we’ve definitely seen some slippage in support. But it has been a small movement."
Fox News Digital's Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
