United States President Joe Biden is facing renewed pressure to end his faltering re-election campaign after two more Democratic lawmakers joined calls for him to quit the race.
Montana Senator Jon Tester on Thursday became the second senator to call on Biden to step aside, just over a week after Vermont Senator Peter Welch did so.
”I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Tester said in a statement.
“And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term.”
Shortly after Tester’s statement, California House Representative Jim Costa said in a statement that Biden should “pass the torch to the next generation to carry on the legacy he started.”
The latest calls bring to 25 the number of Congressional Democrats who have publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race.
Many other Democrats have expressed concern about Biden’s ability to defeat his Republican challenger Donald Trump in November amid concerns about the 81-year-old Democrat’s physical and mental fitness.
Biden has repeatedly dismissed calls for him to step aside, insisting he is the most qualified person to beat Trump and that opposition to his candidacy is being largely driven by Democratic elites and the media.
Trump, who formally accepted his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, has been rising in the polls since Biden delivered a poor debate performance last month during which he stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought.
Some analysts believe Trump’s standing is likely to rise further after he narrowly survived an attempted assassination during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania over the weekend.
An average of polls on the FiveThirtyEight website on Thursday showed Trump ahead by 3.1 percentage points nationally.
