Mediaboss Marketing

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate refrained on Wednesday from urging their members to rally around President Biden and were instead listening to a barrage of complaints streaming in from both the partys centrist wing and its progressives.

The private message from congressional leaders was that members should feel free to take whatever position about Mr. Bidens candidacy was best for their districts, according to several people involved in the conversations who insisted on anonymity to discuss them.

For some, that meant joining the trickle of elected Democrats who have blasted the presidents performance and either called on him to withdraw or suggested he should seriously consider it.

Representative Ral M. Grijalva of Arizona became the second Democrat in Congress to urge Mr. Biden to leave the race, following Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, who made his call on Tuesday.

If hes the candidate, Im going to support him, but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere, Mr. Grijalva said in an interview. Referring to the president, Mr. Grijalva added: 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.

Other Democrats were not ready to go that far, but hinted they were gravely concerned about Mr. Bidens ability to serve and win re-election.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Continued here:
Democrats in Congress Weigh Whether to Stick With Biden - The New York Times