Have the cracks begun to widen among the Democrat Party establishment? After 24 hours of "deep panic" on the Left, Democrats appeared to close ranks behind Joe Biden and adopt a "one bad night" narrative about the debate.
Until this morning, that is.
INBOX: Rep. Lloyd DOGGETT (D-Texas) becomes the first sitting Democratic lawmaker to publicly call on BIDEN to withdraw from the 2024 race.
— Mychael Schnell (@mychaelschnell) July 2, 2024
"Rep. Doggett Calls on President Biden to Withdraw"
Doggett has served in the House since 1995. pic.twitter.com/EH9JStCsiq
Doggett is no spring chicken either. He'll turn 78 in October, and has served for almost 30 years in Congress. He's also safely ensconced in a D+24 district in Austin (TX-37), so it's not as if he's particularly vulnerable in an electoral collapse created by Biden either. If the White House has lost Doggett, they're in trouble -- big trouble.
And it's not just Doggett. House Democrat Mike Quigley -- who represents a D+18 district in Chicago -- appeared on CNN this morning to call for more "honesty" from the White House about Biden's condition. The implications of ignoring the obvious will be both immediate and long-lasting, Quigley warns ... because this is clearly not just "one bad night":
Rep. Mark Quigley says Biden “has to be honest with himself” because “his decision not only impacts who’s going to serve in the White House the next four years” but who will serve in the House and Senate “and it will have implications for decades to come”pic.twitter.com/DGvYFhXfDv
— Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) July 2, 2024
Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley is skeptical that President Joe Biden’s startling debate performance was just a bad night, and he urged the president to consider how his place on the ticket impacts the fate of Democrats in the Congress.
“We have to be honest with ourselves that it wasn’t just a horrible night,” Quigley told CNN host Kasie Hunt on Tuesday. “But I won’t go beyond that out of my respect and understanding for President Joe Biden, a very proud person who has served us extraordinarily for 50 years. I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much this impacts not just his race but all the other races coming in November.”
Translation:
As with Doggett's turn on Biden, what makes this pitch most interesting is Quigley's district. IL-05 is not just a D+18 district, but it's in the heart of the Chicago Machine that will host this year's Democrat convention. It also votes for Democrat presidential nominees by yuuuuge margins. In the last four cycles, Barack Obama got the lowest vote percentage in IL-05 in his 2012 re-election over Mitt Romney -- winning the district 66/32. Biden won 72% of the vote four years ago, and Hillary Clinton won 71% in 2016.
That also extends to other races in Illinois. Since 2016, only Tammy Duckworth failed to get to 60% in IL-05, when she defeated incumbent Mark Kirk for US Senate. In 2022, J.B. Pritzker won 69.5% of the vote in IL-05 for governor, while the Democrats running for Attorney General and Secretary of State won over 68% in IL-05.
In other words, Quigley and Doggett have districts so safe as can be imagined. Neither have no real reason to cross up the White House on its messaging, at least not in terms of their own phony-baloney jobs. Both Doggett and Quigley may have good reason to worry about their fellow caucus members in other districts who are now being asked to regurgitate the ridiculous spin of "one bad night" and "Biden had a cold" as covers for the clear evidence of Biden's incompetence Thursday night. Both clearly would not prefer to return to a far smaller minority in January, even if their own seats seem secure.
And if Mike Quigley and Lloyd Doggett are starting to panic over those prospects, imagine how other House and Senate Democrats feel. They are being asked to actively gaslight voters in their constituencies, many of whom watched the 90 minutes of doddering Biden lacking the compos mentis to even close his mouth during Donald Trump's responses. So far they have yet to break ranks and challenge the White House spin, but the refusal of these two House Democrats to play along will no doubt increase pressure on them to "be honest" with their voters as well.
Stay tuned, and keep the popcorn popping.
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