Port: North Dakota Democratic Senate, House candidates call for Biden to withdraw from White House race
Published by The Forum | July 12, 2024
MINOT — After a disastrous debate performance and subsequent public appearance that has been something short of reassuring, pressure has been growing on incumbent President Joe Biden to withdraw from the raise.
Including from some of North Dakota's top-of-the-ticket Democratic candidates.
"I believe that both President Biden and former President Trump should bow out from politics and turn our country over to a new generation of leaders," U.S. Senate candidate Katrina Christiansen told me, adding that she'll be voting for whoever the Democratic nominee is, "as I personally couldn't vote for someone who cheats on their wife."
U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer also says Biden should step aside. "Truthfully, the debate performance was disappointing," he told me.
"After speaking with North Dakotans around the state and hearing their concerns about his candidacy, it’s clear we have a leadership crisis in this country."
"I swore to support and defend the Constitution, not any particular party member or person," Hammer, a veteran of the Marine Corps, continued. "I want what’s best for the country and North Dakota, and right now, I believe that means a different candidate at the top of the ticket."
Merrill Piepkorn, who is campaigning for governor, declined to comment on the matter, though he left the door open to taking a position in the future.
"I am choosing not to engage in all the speculative discussion about the issues you raise," he said in response to my inquiry. "Perhaps in the future."
Christiansen is campaigning against incumbent Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer. Hammer is running against Republican Julie Fedorchak for the U.S. House seat that incumbent Kelly Armstrong is vacating to run for governor against Piepkorn.
Biden was alarmingly frail, soft-spoken, and often confused at a June 27 debate with challenger Donald Trump, which put many Democrats into panic mode.
A growing number of Democratic members of Congress have subsequently called on Biden to step aside, as have influential donors, such as actor George Clooney, who argued in a New York Times column that the party needs a new candidate. Most recently, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat from Washington, called on Biden to end his reelection campaign and said he should resign from office.
She's the first congressional Democrat to go as far as saying that Biden should leave office.
Biden and his supporters have pushed back, though little the president has done since the debate has been reassuring. At a much-anticipated press conference at a NATO summit this week, Biden mixed up the names of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. He also confused his vice president, Kamala Harris, with his opponent, Trump.
— Opinion by Rob Port