WASHINGTON – Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado became the first Senate Democrat to publicly say Tuesday night that President Joe Biden can’t win. electionhe stopped short, however, to call her withdraw from the race.
Speaking on CNN, Bennett was asked if he and Sen. John Tester, D-Mont. and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told colleagues during a private meeting on Capitol Hill that Biden could not beat former President Donald Trump? Trump in the fall. He confirmed that he said these words.
“Well, it’s true that I said that, and I said it behind closed doors. You guys and others have asked if I said it, and I say it. That’s why I thought I should come here and say it openly,” said Bennett, who is running against Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Bennet, a former campaign chairman for Senate Democrats who has served in the chamber since 2009, expressed concern about the poll that found Trump leading Biden less than four months before Election Day.
“Donald Trump, I think, is on track to win this election and possibly win it by a wide margin and take the Senate and the House with him,” Bennett said. “So for me, it’s not a poll question, it’s not a policy question. It’s a moral question about the future of our country, and I think it’s very important for us to understand what we’re going to face if we put this country together on the path to re-electing Donald Trump.”
In response to Bennett’s remarks, Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said Biden is not throwing in the towel.
“No one is more committed to defeating Donald Trump and defending our democracy than Joe Biden, and few people know better than Joe Biden the importance of getting to the polls and campaigning to win the support of voters,” Munoz said. “This was always going to be a close race — and the dynamics at play are what we’ve long expected: voters continue to be deeply troubled by Donald Trump and his harmful agenda, and the more we engage and connect with voters, the more they support President Biden.
“There are many days between now and Election Day, and the hard work to win every vote is far from over.”
In conference calls and an open letter to Democratic lawmakers, Biden defied the odds, insisting he was the party’s nominee and would not be dropped from the race.
Still, Bennett’s comments aggressively hit back at the campaign. To limit democratic disorders and boost support on Capitol Hill after the June 27 disruption of Biden’s debate. And his revelations could create an opening for other skeptical or sensitive Democrats to follow Bennett’s lead.
Most Democrats who left a private lunch on Tuesday dismissed the discussion as only “constructive.” But the source said Bennett, Brown and Tester expressed concern that Biden would not win the election. Another source said these concerns were voiced individually, not as a group. The concerns were first reported by CNN.
Brown and Tester face tough re-election bids this fall.
Brown said he wasn’t talking about personal meetings, adding, “I have very legitimate questions about that.”
As he left the Capitol, Tester did not deny the report about his remarks and did not comment on the matter to reporters. In a statement on Tuesday, he said: “President Biden’s poor debate performance has raised serious questions about his readiness. [to] work for the next four years. As I said, he has to prove to the American people and to me that he can do it.”
In an appearance on CNN, Bennett said at the closed-door dinner that no Democrats had called for Biden to back down, and that he wouldn’t go that far.
“I understand how difficult it would be for me to sit in Joe Biden’s shoes and say to myself, ‘After all the hard work, all the achievements, all the extraordinary public service I’ve done. The American people — we have to honor that because he was extraordinary, one of the greatest leaders to be in this office, certainly in recent times — and who accomplished so much, after all, it would be so hard to admit that you’re a lifetime winner. you’re competing against someone you can’t come by,” Bennett said.
“I think it’s very difficult for him to admit that. “I think it’s very difficult for the people who work for him to admit that.”