Report: Senate Dems Ask Biden Critics to Zip Lips

Some Senate Democrats are rallying behind President Joe Biden's bid for reelection by criticizing fellow party members who are pessimistic about his 2024 chances and want to see him replaced on the ballot, The Hill reported Tuesday.

"I see no prospect of an alternative right now. I think Joe Biden is in really good shape, mentally," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told The Hill. "I was with him two hours on Wednesday night. He is sharp, informed and extraordinarily discreet and insightful in comments on very sensitive policy areas like Israel and domestic challenges.

"He will beat [former President] Donald Trump if Democrats rally behind him and discard the handwringing and the eyeball rolling."

The Times reported Nov. 5 that Trump is currently beating Biden in five of six key swing states with polls showing voters' concerns about the president's age and dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy.

The Times and Siena College polling have Trump beating Biden by nine percentage points in Nevada, six points in Georgia, five points in Arizona and Michigan, and four points in Pennsylvania, while Biden leads by two points in Wisconsin.

According to the Times, voters said Biden's policies have personally hurt them, and more than two-thirds say the country is heading in the wrong direction.

"To all my fellow Democrats — STOP!! We need to stop wringing our hands over the pundits and the polls!" Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said in a series of posts on social media platform X on Nov. 9. "We need to keep focused, do the work, and not be distracted by the pundits on TV. We need to proudly tell our story about whose side we're on and how Democrats are delivering!"

David Axelrod, political adviser to former President Barack Obama, recently projected that Biden has a 50-50 shot at winning reelection in 2024 mainly because of his age; Biden turned 81 on Monday.

"I think he has a 50-50 shot here, but no better than that, maybe a little worse," Axelrod told the New York Times. "He thinks he can cheat nature here, and it's really risky. They've got real problems if they're counting on Trump to win it for them. I remember [Hillary Clinton] doing that, too."

Rutgers University political science professor Ross Baker told The Hill that replacing Biden on the 2024 ticket now would bring chaos to the Democratic Party.

"Understandably, there's always been some tension between the Obama people and the Biden people, but to give voice to it so openly seems to me politically foolish," Baker told The Hill. "If enough people" in the party question Biden's competence as a candidate "it's going to develop a life of its own," he said.