Sen. Jon Tester and House Rep. Jim Costa join calls for Biden to step down.
US President Joe Biden is facing renewed pressure to end his faltering re-election campaign after two more Democratic lawmakers joined calls for him to drop out of the race.
On Thursday, Montana Sen. Jon Tester became the second senator to call on Biden to step down, just over a week after Vermont Sen. Peter Welch did so.
“I worked with President Biden when it made Montana stronger, and I was never afraid to stand up to him when he was wrong,” Tester said in a statement.
“And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election.”
Shortly after Tester’s statement, California House Representative Jim Costa said in a statement that Biden should “pass the torch to the next generation to continue the legacy he started.”
The latest calls bring to 25 the number of congressional Democrats who have publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race.
Many other Democrats have expressed concern about Biden’s ability to defeat Republican opponent Donald Trump in November, amid concerns about the 81-year-old Democrat’s physical and mental fitness.
Biden has repeatedly rejected calls for his removal, insisting that he is the most qualified person to beat Trump and that opposition to his candidacy is largely driven by Democratic elites and the media.
Asset, who formally accepted his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention on Thursdayhas been rising in the polls since Biden had a poor performance in last month’s debate, in which he stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought.
Some analysts believe Trump’s popularity is likely to increase further after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the weekend.
An average of polls conducted Thursday by the website FiveThirtyEight showed Trump with a 3.1 percentage point lead nationally.
