Congresswoman Hillary Scholten of Michigan joins calls for Biden to “resign” as a candidate.
Washington ― U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten of West Michigan on Thursday called on President Joe Biden to “step down” as the Democratic presidential candidate. “for the good of our democracy,” becoming the first in Michigan’s congressional delegation to do so.
Scholten praised Biden’s “incredible” legacy, but said her biggest concern is governance. The American people cannot forget what they experienced two weeks ago during Biden’s appearance on the debate stage, and she is hearing from voters that the performance has shaken their confidence in his leadership.
“There is simply too much at stake in this election for us to sit idly by and remain silent while we still have time to do something,” Scholten told The Detroit News.
The member from Grand Rapids, who is in his first term, is the first member of Congress from a swing state up for election in 2024 and the first freshman to call on the 81-year-old president to resign, saying he should pass the torch and “let a new leader step up.”
“Ultimately, that decision is up to the President and the President alone. I will respect his decision if he chooses to stay in the race, and I will vote for him anyway, as a clear and necessary alternative to Donald Trump, who would sow chaos and destruction if he returned to the Oval Office,” Scholten said in a statement Thursday.
“But the people of Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District elected me to represent them with integrity. They elected a congresswoman they trust to tell the truth, even when it’s hard. They voted for someone who will put America’s future first and stand up for what’s right. That’s what I’m doing now.”
Ten other Democratic members of Congress have called on Biden not to run for another term, citing questions about his age, eligibility and his disastrous performance in the June 27 debate, during which he spoke incoherently at times. One senator, Peter Welch of Vermont, has also been on the list since Wednesday evening.
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Scholten’s comments came after two turbulent weeks at the White House and the Biden campaign, which had been trying to contain the fallout from the debate, and leading Democrats slowly began to announce publicly that they believed Biden should be replaced on the ballot.
Biden has repeatedly stressed that he has no intention of going anywhere and has rebuked his critics in increasingly harsh terms.
“I’m so frustrated with the elites … in the party. They know so much more,” Biden said this week on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “But if any of those guys don’t think I should run, let them run against me. Go ahead. Announce your candidacy – announce your candidacy for president. Challenge me at the convention.”
Unless he drops out, Biden is expected to be re-nominated in six weeks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago from August 19 to 22.
In an interview Thursday, Scholten emphasized her position as a swing state member of the U.S. House of Representatives, saying she knows how important it is to have “the strongest possible leader who can stand up to (former President Donald) Trump in this race and with whom we can move the country forward to 2025 and beyond.”
Scholten told The Detroit News she decided to take a stand now because the party has a “very narrow window of opportunity” to act. She raised her concerns in phone calls to the White House immediately after the June 27 debate, and although officials there weighed in, “they obviously didn’t pay any attention to the concerns,” she said.
“It’s become clear over the last few weeks that change is needed. Millions of people, including many of my constituents, saw what they saw on the debate stage, and out of respect and as an appropriate response, we waited two weeks for the president to address people’s concerns and bring us back together. And that hasn’t happened,” Scholten told The Detroit News.
“I have heard from countless voters asking me to act in this moment and be their voice.”
Scholten said she has not personally observed any behavior in her interactions with Biden that would have caused her concern. She mentioned seeing him at the White House congressional picnic a few weeks ago, working on the barrier for hours in 90-degree heat and high humidity.
“He shook every single hand. So, so competent. So calm,” she said. “But I think what we all experienced on the debate stage was something else. And we can’t ask the American people to forget what they saw or tell them not to believe – I’ve always said seeing is believing.”
Other members of Michigan’s congressional delegation largely backed Biden, while some acknowledged his poor performance in the debate and the questions it raised.
Michigan State Senator Gary Peters said Wednesday he supports Biden remaining as presidential candidate because he “absolutely” has the potential to beat Trump in November’s election.
“Yes, absolutely. I believe President Biden can win,” said Peters, who chairs the Democratic Party’s political arm in the Senate.
Peters noted that he regularly works and dialogues with Biden, saying he has “always found him to be very capable of dealing with complex issues, and I will communicate that to everyone.”
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Holly who is running for Senate, said Wednesday she would listen to Michigan voters before “acting out of emotion” about whether Biden remains the party’s nominee.
“I’m going to do what’s best for the things I can control,” Slotkin told The Detroit News. “Ultimately, the decision is Biden’s — only he can make that decision. I can only contribute my thoughts and my input and my understanding of where Michigan stands, but the decision is his.”
Michigan Rep. Phil Skaggs (D-East Grand Rapids) said earlier this week that Biden’s insistence on continuing to run as the Democratic candidate could jeopardize several national elections in Michigan as well as the Democratic majority in the state House of Representatives.
Skaggs said Biden should step down and “pass the torch to a new generation of leaders,” stressing the risk to Democrats in Michigan if Biden refuses to do so. Michigan has four close races for the U.S. House of Representatives, a neck-and-neck race for the U.S. Senate and the state’s entire House of Representatives on the ballot – where Democrats hold a slim 56-54 majority.
House Representative Rachel Hood, another Democrat from Grand Rapids who is not running for re-election, argued Thursday for keeping Biden at the top of the ballot, saying politicians in Washington could not “intimidate a late-career president the way they could intimidate a young president.”
“Old is good at this moment,” Hood tweeted.
Scholten said that if Biden does indeed decide to step down, Democrats must make the process of selecting the next nominee “as democratic as possible.” She also dismissed any description of Democrats in the press as “panicked.”
“We’re just thinking about doing something truly historic. It seems to me that we’re pretty clear-headed and have our eyes wide open to what’s right in front of us and what the way forward is,” she said.
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