‘Pass the torch’: Rep. Schneider calls for Joe Biden to drop out of presidential race
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider of Highland Park on Thursday joined the growing number of Democratic officials calling for President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid.
In a news release, Schneider said the time has come “for President Biden to heroically pass the torch to a new generation of leadership to guide us to the future he has enabled and empowered us to pursue.”
In a follow-up telephone conversation with the Daily Herald, Schneider said Biden’s much-criticized debate performance two weeks ago and his subsequent televised interview with ABC News were turning points for him. A flood of communications from constituents about Biden’s ability to serve also was a factor, Schneider said.
“It’s been highlighted to an extreme the last couple weeks,” Schneider said, referring to what he called a “lack of enthusiasm” for a second Biden term.
Schneider, who represents the North and Northwest suburban 10th District, is the second member of Illinois’ Democratic congressional delegation to publicly say Biden should drop out of the race against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago, who represents the largely suburban 5th District, did so a week ago.
Their pleas — and the those of other Democratic lawmakers and high-profile party donors — follow Biden’s much-criticized performance. Echoing concerns expressed by others, Schneider said Trump — now a convicted felon who’s facing additional charges relating to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — would be “an absolute threat to the very core of our nation” if he’s reelected.
Biden has remained resolute, insisting he’ll continue running for a second term.
Schneider is a longtime Biden ally who shared a stage with the then-vice president for a 2014 political rally in Vernon Hills and endorsed his first presidential campaign early in 2020. By stepping aside now, Biden has a chance to “seal his place in history as one of the greatest leaders our nation, and history, has ever known,” Schneider said.
But if Biden stays in the race, Americans will “be resigned to slog through this election praying we can successfully defend our democracy.”
“I fear if he fails to make the right choice, our democracy will hang in the balance,” Schneider said.
Schneider didn’t say who should run in Biden’s place. He said the Democratic Party has no shortage of candidates capable of galvanizing voters and raising the money needed to win, naming Vice President Kamala Harris, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom among several examples.
“The Democratic bench is incredibly deep and incredibly strong,” Schneider told the Daily Herald.
In addition to Schneider and Quigley, one U.S. senator and nearly a dozen other members of the House have called for Biden to drop out. So have several former lawmakers and a former member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet.
Other high-profile Democrats, including Pritzker, have expressed concern about Biden’s chances if he stays in the race.
Trump is expected to formally receive his party’s nomination during the Republican National Convention next week in Milwaukee. Biden is scheduled to be named the Democratic nominee at his party’s national convention in Chicago in August.