BOSTON (WHDH) - While questions mount in Washington DC and beyond about whether President Joe Biden should continue his re-election campaign, prominent Massachusetts Democrats on Thursday shared their insight on what they believe Biden should do next.
Though they said winning the November election against Donald Trump is their number one priority, lawmakers also said whether Biden stays in the race is his decision to make.
“It is apparent that he’s rethinking, maybe, his decision to stay in the race,” said Congressman Jim McGovern. “I don’t know whether he will get out or not.”
What McGovern does know is that he believes there is a lot at stake.
“Failure is not an option in the November election,” he said. “We have to win. And so, we need to make sure our candidate is somebody who has a pathway to victory.”
McGovern also noted Biden’s recent COVID-19 diagnosis, which has forced him to pause campaign events while he isolates at his home in Delaware.
“This has been a tough couple of weeks for him and I think the last thing he needs is a COVID diagnosis,” McGovern said.
An increasing number of members of Biden’s own party have called on him to step aside after his widely-criticized performance in last month’s presidential debate against Donald Trump.
After a break from public statements against Biden following this weekend’s assassination attempt on Trump, Representative Adam Schiff publicly said Biden should exit the race on Wednesday.
Biden lost more support on Thursday.
While others weighed in, Sen. Ed Markey at an event in Gardner said Biden’s future is a personal choice.
“This is a decision for the president and his family,” Markey said. “He has the votes to be our nominee. And it’s his decision if he wants to go to the convention to receive those votes then move on to be the Democratic nominee.”
“I will support the decision which Joe Biden makes,” he continued.
Gov. Maura Healey was part of a group of governors who met with Biden earlier this month. At the time, she told reporters the decision about Biden staying in the race was his to make.
At an event Thursday, she would not answer questions from reporters on the topic.
Outside Massachusetts, speaking on the edge of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, representatives of the Biden campaign sought to change the subject Thursday.
“We have to counter [the RNC] with unity and the sooner we get past talking about this and talking about what’s at stake and what we’ve heard for the first three nights of this convention and what we’re going to hear tonight from Donald Trump, the better off we’ll be,” said Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks.
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