Pass the Torch, a new grassroots group calling for Biden to step out of the 2024 presidential race, held a rally outside the White House on Saturday.
“Thank you, Joe; it’s time to go!” the group chanted outside the gates. Organizers say approximately 100 people were in attendance.
President Biden has faced intense pressure from members of his own party to forfeit the Democratic nomination since his disastrous debate performance at the end of June. As of Saturday, 35 Democrats have publicly called for Biden to step aside.
In a statement issued before the rally, Pass the Torch explained their movement is grounded in concerns that Biden is unable to defeat former President Trump, characterizing November as an “existential election.”
“We need a presidential nominee who has the best chance to beat Trump, and an increasingly large majority of Democrats believe that President Biden is not that candidate and should step aside,” wrote Aaron Regunberg, a steering committee member of the organization. “That’s why we’re organizing something that’s harder to ignore—a demonstration in front of the White House.”
“Biden has done an amazing job the past four years,” Claudia Nachega, a 19-year-old attendee from Maryland told The Hill. “I also think that with Biden’s falling poll numbers, it’s definitely time to have a new Democratic nominee that we can be sure that will win in November.
“That’s why I showed up today to ask Joe Biden to pass the torch so that young people especially can rally behind a new candidate.”
Some, including the progressive wing of the Democratic party, have characterized those calling for the president to drop out as Democratic elites.
“I think it’s like, factually incorrect to say that,” Emily O’Keefe, a 22-year-old from Virginia who attended the rally said in response.
“This is a concern that’s held by wide swaths of the Democratic Party,” echoed Quentin Colón Roosevelt, a 20-year-old D.C. native who attended the rally. “I think behind closed doors, there are plenty of members of Congress, progressives included, that want to see a new leader in the Oval Office.”
“It was just, you know, a bunch of us — everyday people — who care and want to have the best chance of securing a future,” O’Keefe emphasized.
President Biden is currently away in Delaware, where he is isolating as he recovers from COVID. In a statement issued Friday, the Biden campaign once again doubled down on a commitment to stay in the race until November.
“Donald Trump’s dark vision for the future is not who we are as Americans. Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said. “The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”