One Democrat in Congress suggested President Joe Biden not only should end his reelection campaign, he also should resign from office.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., told KGW8 on Thursday that Biden "should do what he knows is right for the country and put the national interest first."
"I've spent the past two weeks listening to my constituents express their concerns about the President's age and health. Like most people I represent in Southwest Washington, I doubt the President's judgment about his health, his fitness to do the job, and whether he is the one making important decisions about our country, rather than unelected advisors," Gluesenkamp Perez, whose district leans Republican, wrote in an email to KGW8.
"Americans deserve to feel their president is fit enough to do the job. The crisis of confidence in the President's leadership needs to come to an end. The President should do what he knows is right for the country and put the national interest first."
Gluesenkamp Perez's statement came before Biden concluded his highly anticipated hourlong press conference Thursday night.
After the press conference, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.; Scott Peters, D-Calif.; and Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., called for Biden to step aside as the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee. They joined 13 fellow House Democrats and one Senate Democrat, Vermont's Peter Welch, who have urged Biden to end his reelection bid.
Biden's status as the party's presumptive nominee has been an issue since his halting and shaky June 27 debate performance against Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
The president used the news conference Thursday to deliver a forceful defense of his foreign and domestic policies, and batted away questions about his ability to serve another four years even as he flubbed a reference to former President Donald Trump in one of his first answers.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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