--- title: More Senior Democrats Call on Biden to Step Aside: Reports description: Jerrold Nadler, Mark Takano, Adam Smith, and Joe Morelle privately said the U.S. President should leave the 2024 race, U.S. media reported. canonical: https://time.com/6995733/democrats-biden-us-election/ author: Anna Gordon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-07-08T12:52:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T17:54:03.211Z article:section: Politics og:title: More Senior Democrats Call on Biden to Step Aside: Reports og:description: Jerrold Nadler, Mark Takano, Adam Smith, and Joe Morelle privately said the U.S. President should leave the 2024 race, U.S. media reported. og:url: https://time.com/6995733/democrats-biden-us-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt754b214a0add0c32/698a5884e6e84a38982b3216/biden-senior-democrats-call-for-resignation.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Biden Arrives In Harrisburg For Campaign Event og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Senior Democrats Call on Biden to Step Aside: Reports twitter:description: Jerrold Nadler, Mark Takano, Adam Smith, and Joe Morelle privately said the U.S. President should leave the 2024 race, U.S. media reported. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt754b214a0add0c32/698a5884e6e84a38982b3216/biden-senior-democrats-call-for-resignation.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More Senior Democrats Join Call for Biden to Step Aside, Reports Say by [Anna Gordon](https://time.com/author/anna-gordon/) ## Anna Gordon Gordon was a reporter for TIME, based in the London bureau. Jul 8, 2024 12:52 PM UTC  U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to disembark Air Force One as he arrives at Harrisburg International Airport on July 7, 2024\. President Biden is holding several campaign events in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The campaign events come as calls to end his re-election bid continue after an unfavorable debate performance. U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to disembark Air Force One as he arrives at Harrisburg International Airport on July 7, 2024\. President Biden is holding several campaign events in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The campaign events come as calls to end his re-election bid continue after an unfavorable debate performance.Michael M. Santiago–Getty Images by [Anna Gordon](https://time.com/author/anna-gordon/) ## Anna Gordon Gordon was a reporter for TIME, based in the London bureau. Jul 8, 2024 12:52 PM UTC Multiple House Democrats joined calls for President Joe Biden to hand over his candidacy for the U.S. election to another candidate during a private meeting on Sunday with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, according to U.S. media [reports](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-campaign-battleground-pennsylvania-democrats-mull-his-candidacy-2024-07-07/). During the Zoom [call](https://time.com/6995618/biden-drop-out-democrats/), promoted as a “listening session” by Jeffries, senior Democrats discussed possible ways to convince Biden that he should step aside in the aftermath of a debate performance that was widely criticized and labeled as a “bad night” by Biden himself. **Read More:** [_Inside Biden’s Debate Disaster_ ](https://time.com/6993760/joe-biden-debate-disaster-democratic-panic/) According to reports by [CBS](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-2024-race-senior-house-democrats-step-aside/) and the [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/07/us/biden-trump-election), the House Democrats that said Biden should leave the race included Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, who serves as the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee; Rep. Mark Takano of California, who serves as the ranking member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee; Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, who serves as the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Effective Foreign Assistance; and Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, who serves as the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration. Other representatives on the call also expressed skepticism about the President’s chances of winning a second election against former President Donald Trump, according to both outlets. The Associated Press [reported](https://apnews.com/article/biden-campaigning-pennsylvania-democratic-doubts-election-77b050b1c5c39aec2ef633281d082566) that Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who serves as the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, also voiced support for Biden to step aside. The New York Times and CBS reported, however, that Himes expressed concern for Biden’s electoral chances but did not say he called for the President to make way for another candidate. (TIME has reached out to Himes for comment.) **Read More:** [_‘I’m in This Race to the End’: Biden Digs His Heels as Calls to Drop Out Grow Louder_](https://time.com/6994944/joe-biden-drop-out-kamala-polls/) The news comes as concerns about Biden’s mental fitness in the aftermath of the June 27 debate performance mount. [At least five Democratic lawmakers](https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-election-abc-debate-age-trump-25a863ba1ca3d6d01d8cc69a61274321) have publicly stated that the 81-year-old Biden should not seek a second term as President. The Biden campaign has rejected calls to step aside. “I'm not letting one 90-minute debate wipe out three and a half years of work,” the President [posted on X](https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/1809317737556222075) last week. “I'm staying in the race, and I will beat Donald Trump.” A poll conducted in August 2023 by The Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Research found that [69% of Democrats said Biden was too old](https://apnews.com/article/biden-age-poll-trump-2024-620e0a5cfa0039a6448f607c17c7f23e) to serve effectively for another four years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6995733/democrats-biden-us-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6995733/democrats-biden-us-election/"},"headline":"More Senior Democrats Join Call for Biden to Step Aside, Reports Say","datePublished":"2024-07-08T12:52:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:54:03.211Z","description":"Jerrold Nadler, Mark Takano, Adam Smith, and Joe Morelle privately said the U.S. President should leave the 2024 race, U.S. media reported.","url":"https://time.com/6995733/democrats-biden-us-election/","keywords":["2024 Elections","News","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt754b214a0add0c32/698a5884e6e84a38982b3216/biden-senior-democrats-call-for-resignation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Anna Gordon","jobTitle":"Gordon was a reporter for TIME, based in the London bureau.","url":"https://time.com/author/anna-gordon/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt754b214a0add0c32/698a5884e6e84a38982b3216/biden-senior-democrats-call-for-resignation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Biden Arrives In Harrisburg For Campaign Event","caption":"Biden senior Democrats call for resignation","creditText":"Michael M. Santiago–Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2024-election/","name":"2024 Elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6995733/democrats-biden-us-election/","name":"More Senior Democrats Join Call for Biden to Step Aside, Reports Say"}}]}] ```