Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who has already called on President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, says Biden did not recognize him at a ceremony in Normandy, France last month.
“Every time we crossed paths and I caught his eye, he would break into that big, wide Joe Biden grin and say how glad he was to see me. It was like that just last Christmas at the White House Ball,” Moulton wrote in a column in the Boston Globe.
“More recently, I saw him in a small group at Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. For the first time, he didn’t seem to recognize me,” he added.
“It was a crushing realization, and not because a person I care about had a rough night but because everything is riding on Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November,” he continued. “America needs him to win and, like most Americans, I’m no longer confident that he can. The president should bow out of the race.”
Moulton was the third House Democrat to call on Biden to stand down, saying at the time that “President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our founding father, George Washington’s, footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against [former President Trump].”
In his column, Moulton, who was a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, laid out how, at the time, then-Vice President Biden came to his district to help his campaign because he “saw a little of himself in a young upstart taking on an entrenched incumbent.”
“The next year, after I had won the general election, he would invite me to breakfast at the vice president’s house and teach me about Congress. Sometimes he would pick up the phone to comment on a TV interview,” he wrote.
However, Moulton added that the president’s once “irrepressible force” of energy, vitality and wit “are flickering.”
Moulton pointed to poll numbers that show that Biden is “trailing” Trump nationally and in most battleground states, adding that Biden has not yet demonstrated that “he is willing or able to change his strategy.”
“The assassination attempt on Trump last weekend makes him even harder to beat, and it makes prosecuting the case about why he is a danger to democracy more tricky — though no less essential — because the wrong word choice can quickly be used against you,” Moulton adds.
“Of course, Trump is almost as old and never had Biden’s strengths to begin with. His debate performance was coherent only when he was lying. My Republican friends admit as much, in private,” he wrote. “But just as Republicans need to find the courage to speak out against Trump, my fellow Democrats need to find the courage to speak the truth about President Biden before it’s too late.”
More than 30 Congressional Democrats have called on Biden to stand down as the party’s nominee, with 10 making the call on Friday. Since Wednesday, former President Obama, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have all privately raised concerns about Biden’s ability to win the presidency and the down-ballot implications of a potential Biden loss to Trump.
The president’s campaign team has repeatedly sought to quell concerns from party lawmakers and voters, most recently during a Friday interview on MSNBC.
“Absolutely, the president’s in this race,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s reelection campaign chair, said on “Morning Joe” when asked by co-host Mika Brzezinski if Biden is still in the race. O’Malley Dillon said Biden “is more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump.”
The Biden campaign also released a new memo following the end of the Republican National Convention reiterating the president will be the Democratic nominee, even as the party remains embroiled in disagreement about the path forward.
According to party insiders, Biden is expected to make a major announcement soon regarding his candidacy.
In response to Moulton’s column, White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told The Hill: “Like all commanders in chief, President Biden deals with a lot of folks. He appreciates Congressman Moulton’s service.”
The Hill has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.
Updated at 10:36 p.m. EST.