Warnock says Biden should ‘absolutely not’ step aside

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said on Sunday that President Biden should “absolutely not” drop out of the presidential race, amid concerns following his shaky debate performance on Thursday.

“Absolutely not,” Warnock said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” when asked whether Biden should drop out.

Warnock said that, as a pastor, “I can tell you that there have been more than a few Sundays when I wish I had preached a better sermon.”

“But after the sermon was over, it was my job to embody the message, to show up for the people that I serve,” he continued. “And that’s what Joe Biden has been doing his entire life, his entire life of public service, and over the last four years, he has been showing up for the American people.”

Warnock, in the interview, pivoted to attacking former President Trump and his performance in the debate, saying the former president spent the debate “trash talking the whole country.”

“The question this morning is not, ‘what is Joe Biden going to do?’ The question is, who has Donald Trump ever showed up for other than himself and people like himself? I’m with Joe Biden, and it’s our assignment to make sure that he gets over the finish line come November, not for his sake, but for the country’s sake,” Warnock said.

Warnock’s fierce defense of the Democratic incumbent comes as Democrats try to quell concerns about replacing Biden atop the ticket, after he delivered a sometimes meandering, difficult performance in the first presidential debate against Trump.

Trump lied repeatedly during the debate, making false claims about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and taking credit for a legislative accomplishment passed during Biden’s term in office. Democrats have sought to pivot the national debate on the election to Trump’s performance.

“If you listen to Donald Trump, you have to come away with the conclusion that he thinks he’s better than America. The opposite is true. America is better, a whole lot better, than Donald Trump,” Warnock said in the interview.

Addressing talk of replacing Biden more directly, Warnock added: “We’ve had a primary. It is our job to demonstrate that the world is watching and our children are counting on us to get this right.”