While some Democrats have begun to publicly question whether President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus is standing firmly behind him.
“The choice is between two visions,” state Sen. Lamont Bagby, caucus chair, wrote in a Monday news release. “A second Trump presidency would set us back a generation. We have full faith that a second Biden presidency would keep us moving forward.”
Bagby, D-Richmond, said the caucus’ decision to support Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris was based solely on shared policy positions. The caucus consists of more than 30 legislators, including House Speaker Don Scott and Sen. Louise Lucas, both Portsmouth Democrats.
“This administration has ushered in historic economic and job growth, record unemployment, and long overdue investments in healthcare coverage and our infrastructure,” Bagby wrote. “They have fought for and won policies that protect real, working class people from exploitative corporate interests in the pharmaceutical industry, overwhelming student debt, and the threats our changing climate brings.”
Biden’s debate performance last month has fueled some divisions within the Democratic Party about whether it’s time for the 81-year-old to pass the torch to a younger candidate. At least six Democrats in the House of Representatives have publicly called on Biden to withdraw from the race. U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., quietly sought to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask Biden this week to exit the race, The Washington Post reported.
Warner’s plan for a Monday meeting did not materialize, according to Axios, a news website.
Warner issued a statement Monday that did not address whether he thought Biden was fit to run, but encouraged more conversation.
“With so much at stake in the upcoming election, now is the time for conversations about the strongest path forward,” Warner said. “As these conversations continue, I believe it is incumbent upon the President to more aggressively make his case to the American people, and to hear directly from a broader group of voices about how to best prevent Trump’s lawlessness from returning to the White House.”
In a Monday letter to congressional Democrats, Biden doubled down on his intention to remain in the race. He said he was selected as the party’s nominee and that he would not override the will of the voters.
“It was their decision to make,” Biden wrote. “Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any selected group of individuals, no matter how well intentioned. The voters — and the voters alone — decide the nominee of the Democratic Party. How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party?”
During a gaggle with reporters Monday, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he trusted the president to make the call.
“Joe Biden is a person who has always put his country first over himself and I’ve never been disappointed in him,” said Kaine, who is running for reelection this year. “If he believes fully that he can do this, I will respect that judgment but I also completely believe that if he has doubts about whether he can do it, he will level with the American public.”
Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Virginia released a statement Monday mocking Democrats for being in a “meltdown.”
“Voters will also not forget that even now Democrats do not have the courage to say publicly what it is clear they privately believe,” the release states. “This gross moral cowardice is an indictment on all of their leadership, and they will have to answer for it at the ballot box this November.”
Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com
