Rep. Pat Ryan on Wednesday became the eighth House Democrat to call on President Biden to end his presidential campaign, arguing he is “no longer the best candidate to defeat Trump.”
The New York Democrat said in a post on X that Mr. Biden should step aside “for the good of our country” and “deliver on his promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders.”
“Trump is an existential threat to American democracy; it is our duty to put forward the strongest candidate against him,” he said. “Joe Biden is a patriot but is no longer the best candidate to defeat Trump.”
Mr. Ryan is a “Frontline” House Democrat, a designation the party’s campaign arm gives to incumbents considered vulnerable in their reelection races. He is only the second Frontline Democrat, after Rep. Angie Craig, to publicly call on Mr. Biden to step aside, but others have expressed private concerns about the president’s ability to beat Mr. Trump and the impact his candidacy could have on their races.
Mr. Ryan is also the most junior of the House Democrats who have publicly called on Mr. Biden to drop out of the race. He first won his Hudson Valley area seat in an August 2022 special election to replace former Rep. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat who left Congress to serve as New York’s lieutenant governor.
Before his X post, Mr. Ryan gave an interview to The New York Times in which he took issue with Mr. Biden characterizing Democrats expressing doubts about his candidacy as “elites.” In traversing his district over the July 4 recess, he said he heard from constituents of varied backgrounds who were “deeply concerned” about Mr. Biden’s ability to compete.
“These are the opposite of elites,” Mr. Ryan said. “These are people eating hot dogs and drinking beer and talking about my Yankees and where the country’s at and expressing some pretty deep and weighty things.”
Like others who have called on Mr. Biden to step aside, Mr. Ryan praised the president for his “historic accomplishments,” and suggested that a decision to drop out of the race would be viewed admirably.
“I really think this would go down in history at or near what George Washington did in terms of stepping aside for the good of the country,” he said. “It would be such a stark contrast to the selfishness of Trump.”
If Mr. Biden did step aside, Mr. Ryan wants to see an open process to replace him, naming several possible candidates: Vice President Kamala Harris; Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Wes Moore of Maryland and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
“The Republican approach here has been lockstep behind a guy who has been incredibly dangerous,” he said. “This is an opportunity to contrast that and say, no we’re listening to the American people and we’re going to have a small ’d’ democratic approach to this that is energizing and in line with the founding values of our country.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.