ST. LOUIS—Rep. Cori Bush said Friday that calls into her office about President Joe Biden’s place atop the Democratic Party ballot in November all favor him dropping out of the race for the White House, but Bush declined to say if she agreed with that feedback.
Democratic party lawmakers and donors have been reconsidering their support for Biden following last month’s debate performance against former President Donald Trump raised questions about Biden’s fitness to run a winning general election campaign and potentially four more years in office.
A presidential news conference Thursday night did not stem the tide of lawmakers who have called for Biden to drop out of the race, although Rep. Jim Clyburn, the influential South Carolina Democrat and, like Bush, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, did use a Friday morning interview on NBC to voice his support.
A few hours later, at a campaign event in downtown St. Louis, Bush, a pledged Biden delegate to the DNC, said she was still listening to feedback coming into her office, but that what she was hearing was that Biden should not continue.
Bush declined to say if she would ever announce her own decision. Her comments came after a campaign event where she was surrounded by organized labor groups who have endorsed her re-election bid in a heated primary where her critics have accused her of not being a reliable Biden ally in Congress.
Bush has been a vocal opponent of Biden administration policy on issues related to Israel and Gaza and is a big reason why AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, is backing one of her Aug. 6 challengers, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell.
The United Democracy Project, a wing of AIPAC, has hit the airwaves with ads attacking Bush’s vote against the 2021 infrastructure bill–a signature Biden administration achievement.
Bush said Friday she voted against the final version of the bill after elements in the House-backed measure were stripped out in the Senate. While AIPAC has supported both Republican and Democratic candidates, Bush has keyed her focus on donors who have backed Republican candidates like former President Trump.
“We are here today fighting back against their right wing agenda and attempts to undermine president Biden, undermine Democrats and the best interests of our community. We reject their lies. I will always stand up for what St. Louis deserves and St. Louis does not deserve scraps and therefore I don’t work for the scraps,” she said.
The Bell campaign did not immediately respond to questions about the Bush event. Former State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, also running for the seat, has said she remains in support of Biden’s place on the ticket.
On Thursday, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Spectrum News that Biden “ is clearly incapable of discharging the functions of the office, which is endangering the security and safety of the United States.”
“If Joe Biden isn’t capable of running a presidential campaign, surely he’s not capable of running the government,” Hawley said, urging Democrats in the cabinet to use the 2th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Biden from office.
The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
RNC Preps
As late as last night, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and State Sen. Bill Eigel were up in the air about whether they’d be in Missouri on the campaign trail next week in the race for governor or making the trip to Milwaukee as part of the state Republican delegation to the party’s national convention.
Both were on a “grassroots” slate of delegates approved at a chaotic state convention earlier this summer that was later rejected by the national party. The slate was reinstated Friday by the RNC’s Credentials Committee, our partners at the Missouri Independent reported.
“The Missouri Republican Party never contested the convention or the original delegate slate, and we are pleased the RNC has finally settled this matter so we can focus on delivering our Party’s 54 national convention delegates to President Donald J. Trump, and electing Missouri Republicans up and down the ballot this November,” a state party spokesperson said in a statement to Spectrum News Friday.
Missouri U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt told Spectrum News earlier this week that he expects to have some sort of role when it comes to the convention, but the specifics were still unclear late in the week. Hawley said he won’t have a formal role.
Expect to see Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in Milwaukee as well, serving as a Biden surrogate.
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