Jamie Raskin, a Key Democrat, Suggested to Biden That He Should Drop Out

Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a key member of the House committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sent President Biden a four-page letter this month that compared the 81-year-old commander in chief to a tiring baseball pitcher and urged him to consult with fellow Democrats about whether to continue his campaign.

Mr. Raskin opened his letter, which was dated July 6 and was obtained by The New York Times, by writing that he shared Mr. Biden’s “mad love for American democracy and freedom.”

The letter, the authenticity of which Mr. Raskin confirmed on Thursday, begins with nearly three pages of lavish praise for Mr. Biden. Mr. Raskin writes that he wishes to “remind you of your true greatness as a leader” and spends several paragraphs recounting Mr. Biden’s legislative achievements and defense of democracy.

But the crux of the letter is a four-paragraph metaphor comparing the president to the Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martínez, a Hall of Famer who was left on the mound for the eighth inning of Game Seven of the 2003 American League Championship Series despite being tired. Mr. Martínez allowed three runs, tying the game before the Yankees won with a walk-off home run in the 11th inning that denied the Red Sox a trip to the World Series, which they had not won in 85 years.

“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics,” Mr. Raskin writes. “Your situation is tricky because you are both our star pitcher and our manager. But in democracy, as you have shown us more than any prior president, you are not a manager acting all alone; you are the co-manager