- Rep. Ritchie Torres once rebuked Biden doubters, but now says Democrats should look at “actual numbers.”
- Sen. Richard Blumenthal endorsed Biden, but said he was “deeply concerned” about the election.
- The statement came after the latest poll figures showed Democrats losing support in key states.
On Monday, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York rebuked his Democratic colleagues for their “drip, drip, drip of public statements of distrust” toward President Biden. On Wednesday, Rep. Torres himself added to the drip, though he did not explicitly call on the president to withdraw from the race.
Even those who openly support the president are sounding the alarm: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who has made it clear he supports Biden since the debate, said Wednesday he was “deeply concerned about a Joe Biden victory this November.”
With Democrats still divided on how to deal with Biden — and the mood on Capitol Hill still sour — recent polling numbers have made matters worse. The Cook Political Report shows Democrats losing ground in six key battleground states, which clearly has Rep. Torres worried. Before sharing her latest statement, she tweeted an image of the new assessment with the caption, “Worrying and sobering.”
In her statement Monday, Rep. Torres said the ongoing debate over Biden’s re-election only risks weakening his candidacy, while she appeared to focus more on quantitative than qualitative assessments in her latest stance.
“What matters is not what we feel, but what the numbers tell us,” Rep. Torres said Wednesday. “An unsentimental analysis of the numbers devoid of any personal feelings or political loyalties will be the basis for our decisions and who we nominate.”
Rep. Torres didn’t mince words in his interview with CNN on Wednesday, warning about the impact the election would have on society and saying that “if we’re going to go on a political suicide mission, we should at least be honest about it.”
The offices of Rep. Torres and Sen. Blumenthal did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
Other Democrats are also growing increasingly uneasy. Nancy Pelosi failed to give the president a firm endorsement during a talk show appearance Wednesday, instead offering an unusually blunt response.
