On Saturday, yet another longtime Biden ally turned his back on the president, calling on him to not run for a second term following his disastrous debate performance on Thursday.
Jamie Metzl, a former underling to President Biden during the Clinton Administration, where he served as deputy staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Biden was a senator, told Fox News that Biden should drop out of the 2024 race.
“I have tremendous respect for Joe Biden. He’s my former boss. I think he’s a great person and a great American patriot. But I think most people seeing him in the debate last night would have to come to the conclusion that he may not have 4½ healthy years left where he can perform at the highest level that’s required for a United States president,” said Metzl.
“And so, it’s with a very heavy heart and deep sadness that I’ve come to the conclusion that the best step for the Democratic Party and for the country is for President Biden to announce that he will not seek the Democratic Party’s nomination to be the presidential candidate,” he continued.
Metzl stated his belief that Biden did an “excellent” job during his first term, claiming that during the prior administration, “we had significant attacks on our democracy and literally an attack on our Capitol. Our alliances were in shambles. So, I think that President Biden has done actually a quite good job. Certainly not perfect. And there’s lots of things that I and we can and should criticize.”
He also said that his call for Biden to drop out is not “a statement about his performance in his first term as president. It’s a statement about what is required to be the president of the United States for four years. And, unfortunately, Joe Biden, who I greatly respect, I don’t believe has that capacity anymore.”
Metzl noted that there is a “marked difference” between Biden now and Biden 25 years ago, but added that it’s “perfectly normal,” to experience those changes.
“We all have parents and grandparents, and we see that age is a very real thing even for a vigorous person like President Biden,” he noted. “When you get to be in your 80s, just the ravages of time catch up to us all. So, I have great respect for him, but I just think that we in the Democratic Party need to be brutally honest with ourselves. Because, if we’re not, the voters in November will certainly be brutally honest with us.”
Metzl added that he isn’t likely to “change my views” on Biden after the debate, but called it a “deeply painful” thing to watch.
Biden’s team has insisted that, in spite of the disheartening debate performance, they will continue in the race and win. When Metzl was asked if Biden would seriously consider dropping out, he said, “I don’t know what’s realistic and what’s not.”
“I certainly know that if President Biden and his team this morning had said, ‘We’re thinking about what’s the next step,’ it would have been game over from that point. So, they almost have to say, ‘We’re in it to win it’ now,” he added. “And the question will be what happens over the next couple of days? Perhaps there’ll be additional polls that will give information. Perhaps, very likely, there are private conversations. But I do think that, after the performance last night, it will just be impossible for President Biden to rebrand himself to the American people.”
“While I have a great love and respect for President Biden, I believe the time has come,” Metzl said. “And I believe that he has one last great act of patriotism left in him. And I believe that making a statement that he will not accept the party’s nomination for the presidency is that statement.”
