Democrat lawmakers pile on pressure as Biden prepares for first press conference in eight months: Live

Democratic Rep Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington has raised her concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and capabilities implying that he should resign from office and drop out of the 2024 presidential race — though she stopped short of directly saying so.

“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,” she wrote in an email to NBC affiliate KGW.

“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.”

“There’s this general sense of just, unbelievable holding your breath every time he does an event, every time he’s with people,” one top Democrat in close touch with Biden’s inner circle of advisers told CNN. This person added that some of those advisers have privately acknowledged: “This is going to get worse.”

That Democrat was blunt about how the president’s closest advisers have responded to any criticism or concerns expressed about the president – including his age and fitness: “Everyone who expresses any level of suspicion or contrary views? They call everyone and they beat the s*** out of them and say: ‘Stay on message.’”

“Do you think Biden should step down? You’ve talked to him more than anyone else has lately… you can be honest,” a pedestrian asked the off-duty ABC News anchor.

James Liddell has the story of what was said next and the fallout…

In today’s Trump campaign Palm Beach Playbook, the Trump campaign offered a glimpse of how they might run against any replacement candidate of President Joe Biden, should he step aside.

Here’s what they wrote:

So the scale of panic on Team Biden has reached the stage where Biden’s own campaign aides say “he needs to drop out.” What’s astonishing is that it took 3 and half years for Democrats and the mainstream media to admit publicly what we’ve all known – Joe Biden is unfit for office.

The ultimate problem for Democrats, though, is that they have no real alternative. President Trump will win in a landslide no matter who they put up. Each of the Democrats being discussed has the same failed Biden-agenda and is complicit in the cover-up of Biden’s decline, which has severely threatened our national security.

For those reasons and more, they should all be considered unfit for office, whether it be Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or someone else.

Democrat Congressman Greg Stanton, who represents Arizona’s 4th district and was formerly the mayor of Phoenix, adds his name to the roster of lawmakers calling on Joe Biden to step aside for a younger generation of candidate.

He wrote on X: “I was one of President Biden’s earliest supporters in 2020, and I’m proud of the progress we’ve made for Arizona.

“However the stakes in this election could not be higher. For our country’s sake, it is time for the President to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders.”

Read his full statement here:

California Rep Jared Huffman tweets: “VP Harris is on fire. She’s vetted, tested, and has been Democrats’ strongest messenger throughout this campaign. She’s next up if we need her, and we might.”

He adds: “Let me be very clear: if/when President Biden passes the torch, I’m all-in for Kamala Harris!”

Hawaii Democrat Rep Ed Case of Hawaii is the twelfth House Democrat to call on President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race as the party’s candidate, John Parkinson of ABC News reports.

“My guidepost is what is the best way forward for our country. I do not believe President Biden should continue his candidacy for re-election as President,” Case says.

“He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people,” the article on Thursday argued. “Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him.”

Josh Marcus reports as we all await the response from Mar-a-Lago… 🫣