Less than two weeks after a rocky debate performance heightened questions over Democratic President Joe Biden’s age and ability to beat former Republican President Donald Trump this November, Vermont’s congressional delegation is weighing how to best support the Democratic presidential ticket.
All three members of Congress — U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. — are allies of the 81-year-old president and hail from the state that delivered Biden his greatest margin of victory over Trump in 2020.
But following Biden’s June 27 debate with Trump, during which the president frequently stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought, Welch told VTDigger this week that Democrats should take the question of Biden’s ability to win “very, very seriously.”
“This was a serious setback with the debate. It raises the age and infirmity question,” Welch told VTDigger on Monday. “People are not going to unsee what they saw.”
As he spoke to VTDigger, Welch was boarding a plane back to Washington, D.C., after lawmakers’ holiday break. Upon their return to Capitol Hill, Welch and the rest of Vermont’s delegation were slated to attend highly anticipated closed-door House and Senate caucus meetings with fellow Democratic lawmakers to discuss their concerns about Biden — and their own down-ballot races.
Balint said in a written statement Tuesday that she “heard overwhelmingly from Vermonters that they would like to see President Biden step aside in this race” while she was home over the past week.
Come Tuesday, she was back in Washington for House Democrats’ two-hour-long caucus meeting. Shortly after the meeting, she said: “Candid conversations about the best path and strategy to defeat Trump are necessary and healthy. Our very democracy is at stake.”
But she stopped short of calling Biden to step aside.
“Biden has an incredible record to run on, but folks are concerned about what they saw at the debate and his ability to win this election,” Balint said. “I’ve taken those concerns directly to Democratic leadership to make sure that message is heard loud and clear.”
Welch on Monday also made his admiration for Biden clear, touting his “extraordinary resilience” and “generous spirit.” He called Biden “probably the best” president who has served since Lyndon B. Johnson.
But he also said that Biden went into the debate with American voters — the president’s supporters included — “having serious questions about his age and capacity.”
“The hope was he would expose Trump for what he is, and put to rest questions about age, and the reverse happened,” Welch said. “People totally disregarded Trump and his lies and his performance, and are totally focused on Biden’s age. And so those issues have been intensified, and I think we have to take that very, very seriously, because job one for the Democrats is to keep Donald Trump out of office.”
Asked if he believes Biden is the right candidate to get that job done and lead the Democratic ticket, Welch responded, “I did pre-debate.”
Balint concluded her statement saying that, “The White House must be occupied by someone who believes in democracy, the constitution and protecting civil rights,” without saying specifically who that should be.
While Welch and Balint have expressed some level of concern about Biden’s candidacy, Sanders — who once was a primary challenger against Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination — has been firm in his support for the president in recent days, despite questions over his age.
In a Sunday appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Sanders made no bones about the fact that, in his words, “Biden is old.”
“He’s not as articulate as he once was. I wish he could jump up the steps on Air Force One. He can’t,” said Sanders, who is 82 years old himself.
But what has to be the focus instead, Sanders continued, is policy. Weighing Biden against Trump, he raised the question: “Whose policies have and will benefit the vast majority of the people in this country?”
“Who has the guts to take on corporate America? Who is talking about expanding Medicare so we cover dental, hearing and vision? Who’s talking about raising the cap on the taxes that people pay into Social Security so we can raise social security benefits and extend the life of Social Security for 75 years? Who’s talking about a permanent child tax credit to cut childhood poverty in America by 50%?” Sanders said. “Those are the issues (Biden has) talked about.”
The progressive independent, who is largely credited with pushing the Democratic Party agenda further to the left in his own presidential runs, reiterated these points later Sunday in a statement from his campaign. In it, he laid out Biden’s “path to victory,” which he said is “a strong agenda that benefits working families and not just wealthy campaign contributors.”
“The American people want change,” Sanders said. “It will either be the change of Trump’s reactionary and xenophobic policies, or change that benefits working families. The choice is clear.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: As concerns over Joe Biden’s age mount, Vermont’s delegation weighs how best to support the Democratic ticket.