Biden’s Debate Performance Leaves Texas Democrats In Disarray

Texas Democrats in Congress are divided on whether President Joe Biden should be their 2024 nominee following a disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump.

According to the Dallas Morning News, House Democrats gathered on Tuesday for a private meeting where they seemed divided over Biden.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin was the first Democrat in Congress to publicly call for Biden to withdraw as the Democratic nominee and at the Tuesday meeting he argued Biden should step down because the menace of Trump becoming president is too big.

“The debate cannot be unseen,” Doggett told reporters as he left the meeting. “The president has been running behind. We needed a surge. We got a setback. He is a great man who has made a great contribution to the country but he shouldn’t leave a legacy that endangers us, that we surrender to a tyrant.”

Other House Democrats have remained silent over Biden. U.S. Rep. Colin Allred has said in campaign ads that he has stood against Biden on some issues like border security, but hasn’t given an opinion since the debate. Some experts have argued that it’s better for Allred to distance himself from Biden if he wants to win the race against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

On the other hand, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have shown strong support for Biden.

“The stakes are so much higher for us,” said U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett. “So I don’t want to play around. I want to get to work. I have been crisscrossing the country on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration and talking to people about the policies that Democrats are trying to usher in. And the fact that somebody would change their mind after 90 minutes and ignore the years of progress in the policies is absolutely asinine to me.”

U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen said it seems that suddenly some Democrats and the media have lost his faith in the president because of a debate.

“He stumbled on a 90-minute debate, but that can’t be the judgment to end it all,” Gonzalez said. He added that he has spent a lot of time with the President and that he is mentally fit for another term.

At the federal level, some prominent figures such as Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi have said that it’s Biden’s decision whether to withdraw or stay in the race.

“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short,” Pelosi said Wednesday.