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lloyd doggett
As Debate Fallout Continues, Biden Says Nobody 'Pushing Me Out'
The president's message comes as a second Democrat in Congress suggested that he should exit the race.
Jul 03, 2024
"I'm running," declared the subject line of a fundraising email that U.S. President Joe Biden sent on Wednesday as the Democrat's reelection campaign sought to combat the criticism that has mounted since his poor debate performance last week.
"I'm the Democratic Party's nominee. No one is pushing me out. I'm not leaving, I'm in this race to the end,
and WE are going to win this election," wrote Biden, who won't be the official nominee until the convention next month. "I've been knocked down and counted out my whole life. I'm sure the same is true for many of you."
After quoting his father—who supposedly used to say: "Champ, it's not how many times you get knocked down. It's how quickly you get up."—Biden expressed confidence that he and Vice President Kamala Harris will beat the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, in November, as they did in 2020.
However, recent polls and reporting suggest that Democratic voters and elected officials are less confident post-debate—particularly given the stakes, with Trump emboldened by a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling, pledging to be a dictator on "day one," and expected to pursue the far-right's Project 2025 policy agenda.
Since the debate, multiple political commentators have called for replacing Biden as the Democratic candidate. On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in Congress to call on the president to withdraw from the race, saying that he "saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2021. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024."
In a Wednesday interview with The New York Times, Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona became the second.
"If he's the candidate, I'm going to support him, but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere," Grijalva said. "What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat—and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race."
As Reutersreported Tuesday:
There are 25 Democratic members of the House of Representatives preparing to call for Biden to step aside if he seems shaky in coming days, according to one House Democratic aide.
A second House Democratic aide said moderate House Democrats in competitive districts—often called "frontliners"—were getting hammered with questions in their districts this week.
Democratic Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) and Jared Golden (Maine)—Blue Dog Coalition co-chairs who, as the Timesnoted, are both "facing challenging reelection races in rural districts"—have not called on Biden to bow out of the contest but separately suggested this week that he is going to lose to Trump in November.
In addition to insisting that he is still running in the email to supporters, Biden on Wednesday "unexpectedly joined a Zoom call" with campaign and Democratic National Committee (DNC) staff, according toPolitico.
Citing two people on the call who were granted anonymity, the outlet detailed:
"Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can—as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running... no one's pushing me out. I'm not leaving. I'm in this race to the end and we're going to win," Biden said on the call.
Biden's forcefulness and resolve, especially compared to how he came across during last week's debate, was as reassuring to several attendees, who discussed the call afterward via text message, as what he said.
...Harris, whose profile has risen in recent days as Democrats focus on her with new seriousness as a possible replacement atop the ticket, was seated beside Biden on the video call.
"We will not back down," Harris said. "We will follow our president's lead. We will fight, and we will win."
Several names have been floated as possible replacements if the president does decide to end his campaign—including the Democratic governors of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—but Reutersspoke with seven unnamed sources at the Biden campaign, DNC, and White House who all agreed that Harris is the top alternative.
While Harris' aides have so far publicly dismissed such a scenario, party donors and insiders—such as Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo and Donna Brazile, the former interim DNC chair—also told the news agency that should Biden decide against seeking a second term, it would make sense for the vice president to step in.
Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn (S.C.), a key Biden ally, has reaffirmed his support for the president since the debate but also made clear that he would back Harris if Biden exited the race.
According to the Times, which also gave anonymity to its sources:
Mr. Biden's allies said that the president had privately acknowledged that his next few appearances heading into the July 4 holiday weekend must go well, particularly an interview scheduled for Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
"He knows if he has two more events like that, we're in a different place" by the end of the weekend, said one of the allies, referring to Mr. Biden's halting and unfocused performance in the debate. That person, who talked to the president in the past 24 hours, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stressed during Wednesday's briefing that Biden isn't dropping out and rejected the Times reporting, saying, "That is absolutely false."
New national polling of likely voters from the Times and Siena College shows Trump beating Biden 49% to 43%, a three-point shift in the GOP's favor since before the debate. Polling published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal similarly has Trump leading Biden 48% to 42%.
Survey results released Wednesday by CBS News feature a smaller margin but still favor the Republican: "Trump now has a three-point edge over President Biden across the battleground states collectively, and a two-point edge nationally."
Polling released Tuesday suggests Harris may do better against Trump. CNNfound that while Trump beats Biden 49% to 43%, the former president only leads Harris by two points, 47% to 45%.
The voters surveyed by Ipsos were split, with 40% supporting Trump and the same share backing Biden. In the Trump-Harris matchup, the split was 42% to 43% in the Republican's favor.
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Risk of Trump Win 'Too Great': First House Democrat Calls On Biden to Step Aside
"President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2021," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett. "He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024."
Jul 02, 2024
Crediting U.S. President Joe Biden with spearheading "transformational" changes since taking office three-and-a-half years ago, Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Tuesday became the first Democratic member of Congress to call on the president to withdraw from the 2024 electoral race, warning that a potential victory by former President Donald Trump would "usher America into a long, dark, authoritarian era."
With just four months until Election Day, and weeks until the Democratic Party formally nominates its presidential candidate, Doggett (D-Texas) said in a statement that the party's "overriding consideration must be who has the best hope of saving our democracy from an authoritarian takeover by a criminal and his gang."
Doggett spoke out five days after Biden faced Trump in the first debate of the presidential campaign and alarmed viewers, Democratic strategists, and aides with his performance. The president, speaking in a raspy voice and appearing to lose his train of thought several times, struggled to make the case for his achievements and to call out Trump's repeated lies.
The debate reportedly sent a wave of panic through the Democratic Caucus, with one party insider telling Politico that names of potential replacements for Biden were being floated.
In his statement, Doggett noted that Biden's poll numbers compared to Trump's were cause for concern for several months before the debate.
"Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory—too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what could not be turned around in the debate, can be turned around now," said Doggett. "President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2021. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024."
Doggett's comments came as CNN released a poll showing that Trump is leading Biden by 49% v. 43%, while his lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in a potential matchup is smaller. Trump leads the vice president by two points.
Among Independent voters, Harris has a three-point edge over the former president, while Trump leads Biden by 10 points.
A separate poll released Tuesday by the progressive grassroots group Our Revolution showed that 67% of respondents supported Biden suspending his reelection campaign.
Doggett noted that the days following the debate have made increasingly clear the danger of a potential second Trump term, as the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Trump has "absolute immunity" regarding "official acts" he committed while he was in office—casting doubt on whether he can be held accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and rendering any U.S. president, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, "a king above the law."
"Newly empowered with immunity," said Doggett, Trump would be "unchecked by either the courts or a submissive Republican Congress."
The congressman noted that while Biden has spearheaded some far-reaching legislative reforms, the president signaled earlier in his term that he planned to serve only one term.
"He has the opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders from whom a nominee can be chosen to unite our country through an open, democratic process," said Doggett. "Recognizing that, unlike Trump, his first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so."
Doggett told Matthew Choi of The Texas Tribune that he had notified the White House of his decision to speak out in favor of Biden stepping aside last Friday, the day after the debate.
"After the debate, the risk of a Trump presidency has grown so much that I felt forced to take this action," Doggett said.
Another survey released Tuesday by Puck News showed alternative candidates including Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer polling ahead of Biden in a potential matchup with Trump.
In light of the the new polling numbers, said former Rhode Island lawmaker and lawyer Aaron Regunberg, Democratic leaders who are "trying to shut down this debate are actively helping Trump."
Regunberg called Doggett's statement "courageous."
"Biden cannot beat Trump," he said. "But another Democrat absolutely can! Whether it's a handoff to VP Harris or an open convention, we don't have to resign ourselves to fascism. It's time for Biden to do the honorable thing and pass the torch."
Also on Tuesday, longtime Democratic National Committee (DNC) member James Zogby wrote to Chairman Jamie Harrison outlining a process through which the party could select its presidential nominee over the next month, ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
Potential candidates could work to secure the endorsements of at least 40 current DNC members and the party could then host two televised events in which the candidates would "make their cases before Democratic voters across the country" before the formal nomination process at the convention starting August 19.
"The excitement generated by this process and the attention it will be given will be a plus for our eventual nominee," said Zogby.
In an interview with The Nation national affairs correspondent John Nichols, Zogby concurred with Doggett's suggestion that Biden's ability to continue serving as president is not what has caused growing concern.
"The focus of this election shouldn't be on the president's age, on his capacity to campaign, on his capacity to govern," said Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute. "It should be on the danger that Donald Trump presents to the country, on the threat that Donald Trump poses."
"We have to face reality here," he said. "Do I think that Joe Biden is capable of governing? I would say 'yes.' Is he capable of forming a team that can govern? Yes. But can he win an election under these circumstances, when these questions about his abilities will be the constant focus? When the Republicans and the media are looking for the next gaffe, waiting for the next time he forgets something, watching his every step to see if he will stumble? This is not what the election should focus on. And, yet, that's where it's headed."
"I would trust Joe Biden on his worst day more than Donald Trump on his best day. But I don't want his last campaign to be one where all people talk about are his weaknesses," Zogby added. "To go out as the gracious warrior, who fought the great battle to defeat Donald Trump in 2020, served four years and then decided to pass the torch, would absolutely solidify his place in history as somebody who thought more about the good of the country than himself."
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70+ US Lawmakers Demand EPA Boost Regulation of Microplastic Pollution
"As plastic pollution saturates our planet and our bodies, the Biden administration should take every reasonable step to protect our environment and public health," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett.
May 12, 2023
Citing extensive research which has shown recently that microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment, more than 70 U.S. House members on Friday wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency to demand stronger regulation of the microscopic particles that are used in everyday household items and have been linked to respiratory diseases and cancers.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) led lawmakers including Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) in writing the letter, which notes that under the Clean Water Act, the EPA can and should "use its existing statutory authorities to address the growing prevalence of microplastic pollution" across the country.
Currently, the lawmakers said, it is largely being left up to individual states to decide whether to regulate microplastics, leading to "troubling disparities... regarding basic protections."
In Doggett's home state, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality last year "quickly abandoned" a proposal to require "chemical companies to have internal processes restricting accidental releases of plastic pollution," while California residents are benefiting from a statewide effort led by the California Ocean Protection Council to reduce microplastics in marine environments.
"Federal action should encourage high standards to mitigate microplastics in natural environments, which can ultimately make their way into the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe," wrote the lawmakers.
\u201cAs plastic pollution saturates our planet and our bodies, the Biden Administration should take every reasonable step to protect our environment and public health.\n\nToday, I led more than 70 Members in urging the @EPA to strengthen its regulation of microplastic pollution.\u201d— Lloyd Doggett (@Lloyd Doggett) 1683901323
The letter points to a 2020 study which found that scientists discovered microplastic pollution in some of the world's most remote places, including Mount Everest, and research from 2021 which suggested the average adult ingests 320,000 microplastics each year.
As Common Dreams reported last year, a team of researchers in the U.K. found tiny microplastic particles lodged in the lungs of 11 out of 13 patients at a hospital, with the most common microplastic found being polypropylene—commonly used in plastic packaging, textiles, and kitchen utensils.
A draft report on microfiber pollution from the EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that microplastics "have the potential to impact human reproductive, respiratory, digestive, nervous, and urinary systems," noted Doggett and the other lawmakers on Friday.
"Plastic pollution is not just affecting our oceans and marine life—it's flowing in our bloodstreams and lingering on nearly every object we touch," said Doggett in a statement. "Regulating microplastics as hazardous waste will protect our health and our environment."
The lawmakers wrote that they are "encouraged" by the EPA and NOAA's draft report and accompanying federal plan for preventing microfiber pollution, but called on the agency to take steps under the Clean Water Act—whose "whole purpose is to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into our waters"—to mitigate microplastics in the environment.
The letter calls on EPA Administrator Michael Regan to:
- Issue national drinking water regulations for microplastics modeled on proposed rules for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), using the Safe Drinking Water Act regulatory process to establish enforceable limits on the number of microplastics in water;
- Officially recognize microplastics as hazardous and toxic materials, rather than solid waste, so they can be regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act;
- Establish effluent limitations for industrial and general stormwater runoff to contain zero microplastic;
- Publish the final version of the EPA/NOAA joint report on microfiber pollution and pursue the recommended actions with an urgent timeline; and
- Increase research and outreach within the EPA's Trash Free Waters program to improve our understanding of microplastics
"Plastics are riddled with toxic chemicals, but their tiny size allows microplastics to infiltrate our environment, our food chain, and our bodies unnoticed," said Anja Brandon, associate director of U.S. plastics policy at Ocean Conservancy. "Who doesn't wish we had taken action on lead, DDT, or PFAS earlier? We need to be treating microplastics the same way we treat other pollutants."
"These are actions that the EPA can and must take now," said Brandon, "to address this growing threat."
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