Texas congressman is first Democratic lawmaker calling for Biden to drop out of 2024 race

Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas has called for President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign, marking the first time a sitting Democratic member of Congress has supported the president dropping out of the race after hisdisastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.

Biden has run “substantially behind” other Democratic candidates in high-stakes races, has trailed Trump in most polls, and then “failed” to expose his Republican rival’s lies during the debate, according to Doggett.

“Our overriding consideration must be who has the best hope of saving our democracy from an authoritarian takeover by a criminal and his gang,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory — too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what was not turned around in the debate, can be turned around now,” he added.

Following a Supreme Court decision that grants Trump and other presidents immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in office, a “newly-empowered” Trump could “usher America into a long, dark, authoritarian era unchecked by either the courts or a submissive Republican Congress,” according to Doggett.

Doggett — who has been in office since 1995 and represents the largely Democratic capital city of Austin — noted that former President Lyndon Johnson once represented the same district. During a televised address in 1968, Johnson announced he would not seek re-election and would not accept his party’s nomination.

“President Biden should do the same,” Doggett said.

Biden “pledged to be transitional,” and leaving the race creates “an opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders from whom a nominee can be chosen to unite our country through an open,