MYNORTHWEST POLITICS

WA Congressman Adam Smith: ‘Impossible’ for President Biden to win re-election

Jul 11, 2024, 12:18 PM

Washington Congressman Adam Smith, a Democrat, is ramping up his calls on President Biden to drop out of the race.

Speaking to CNN, Smith said it’s impossible for Biden to win.

“Come on, you have been a great president. You have been a great leader,” Smith said. “You stepped up and saved the country from Donald Trump in 2020. Don’t let this be your legacy that you refused to step down and got him back in the White House. Don’t do that.”

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Biden has repeatedly said he will not step down. The president is holding a news conference Thursday at 3:30 p.m. that will be carried live on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM.

“The polls show that 80% of the American people think he shouldn’t run. You can’t overcome that,” Smith said. “You can’t. It’s an utter impossibility. You owe us to consider this.”

Smith said Biden is the “presumptive nominee” and not yet the official nominee, going on to say that if Biden is the Democratic candidate, they are headed for disaster.

“I’m hearing from Democrats back home. I can’t even count the emails, texts and phone calls that are telling me, ‘Thank God, somebody had to say something,'” Smith said, referring to his Washington constituents.

Smith was one of the first House Democrats to call on Biden to drop out.

“We have to do something about this. 80-90% of the Democrats in Congress want a different candidate, but do they want to say that publicly? That’s a different thing,” Smith explained.

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Smith was raised in SeaTac and represents the 9th Congressional District. He attended Bow Lake Elementary, Chinook Middle School and Tyee High School, graduating from Tyee in 1983.

“We have a clear choice,” Smith said. “We can head towards near-certain defeat, or we can choose a different path and give ourselves a chance to be successful in November.”

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here. 

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