Why does Adam Smith think that Biden is not the right party pick for this moment?

Biden’s Remarks on the Campaign to End the Biden-Trump Correspondence in the House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committees

We have a great message to run on. Since the debate, I have seen that President Biden does not have the ability to deliver that message effectively or consistently. And the concerns about his health are, you know, papering over our efforts to focus on Trump and that message. We need a better messenger. And I think we have the opportunity to get one, and we ought to take it.

Multiple Democrats have told NPR that they are frustrated that Biden hasn’t been getting a heads up about how serious the lawmakers’ concerns are in regards to the political repercussions from the debate.

But some Democrats were going public with their ire against calls for Biden to withdraw. Wilson said Democratic leaders need to stop listening to the pundits if they want Biden to quit.

The top Democrats on the House Judiciary and House Armed Services committees are Nadler, Smith, and Takano.

The virtual meeting was an opportunity for top Democrats in the House to convene before lawmakers return to Capitol Hill on Monday. As members grapple with a president and a party, top leaders have mostly avoided taking a position on Biden.

The House Democrat, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal party discussions, said there was a lot of worry after the reports of Biden not being available past 8pm last week. If Biden decides to leave, Democrats have little time to do so, but time is running out, according to the member.

Biden told ABC that he would stay in the race and that he defended his record. Biden was defiant when asked if he would step down if he were told he could not defeat Trump.

Indeed, many Democrats are still publicly supporting Biden, even as anxiety grows within their ranks. The issue is causing panic among party members just a month before their convention in Chicago.

So far there have been no public calls from senators for Biden to step aside, despite rumors of a meeting led by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., aimed at encouraging Biden to leave the race.

He said he did not know if the interview on Friday night did enough to answer the questions. I think this week is going to be very critical. I think the president needs to do more.

NPR transcripts are created before a deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Availability and accuracy may be different. NPR has an audio record.

Reply to the Comments on Project 2025: Why President Biden is Not the Right Candidate, but the Party ‘Is the Party’

Smith: I’m not saying he is. I am not saying we shouldn’t go there. And look, you know, this – you know, this comment about the elites, it was the party. It’s – they’re not elites. It’s the party.

SMITH: No, no, no. You know, they did not reach out to me in that regard. After one rally for five days, and not addressing the issue, the president didn’t seem to know how to handle it, and sovoters were reassured that he could handle it. They asked me to give them more time, so I did, until Monday. Nothing had gotten better on Monday. I mean, you saw the White House press conference today that descended into a discussion about why a Parkinson’s doctor was meeting with President Biden’s physician eight times. It’s a distraction from a message that we need to deliver at a time that it could not be more important.

SUMMERS: For the first time, you have said that President Biden should end his campaign. We are walking through your thinking. What led you to make that decision?

SMITH: I think he needs to bring in an independent physician who will give him a full health workup, which includes a neurological examination, after what happened in the debate. He should put that information out for public scrutiny. By the way, Donald Trump should do the same thing.

There is more than one person calling for President Biden to get out of the race, and Congressman Adam Smith is one of them.

SMITH: Sure. The Democrats have a great message this cycle, and I think it starts with that. We have a good record to run on. And frankly, President Biden’s done a good job as president. He made substantial improvements to the economy as we came out of COVID. And then as Democrats, we’ve done a good job, you know, passed the Infrastructure Act, passed the Inflation Reduction Act. There’s a great record to run on, No. 1. Donald Trump is a threat to this country. And Project 2025 sort of lays out what that threat is in great detail.

SUMMERS: If President Biden is not the right candidate, who should be the party’s nominee? Is that Vice President Kamala Harris?

Smith: I think yes. I think Kamala Harris, you know, particularly in the last two years, has really been strong. Her voice on, you know, reproductive health care rights for women, you know, on the Ukraine War – I go to the Munich Security Conference. She’s been there. She’s delivered the speech forcefully. I think she knows how to deliver a message with great strength. If President Biden releases a number of really talented people at the convention, it’s up to the delegates to figure out what to do with them. You know, I would support Harris, but I would accept the judgment of those delegates.

Smith: It’s president joe Biden’s fault that we are focused on that. He was the one who said anytime, anywhere. He was the only one to be on the debate stage with Donald Trump. He is the reason people are talking about this. And frankly, it’s offensive that he doesn’t take responsibility for that, that he tries to throw it back at us. He’s the one who hasn’t been transparent and honest about his health care situation, and he’s the one who has not been capable of delivering the message in an effective and clear way. That’s why we are focused on the issue – because of the way he is running his campaign. So yeah, I think we could tell the American people not to worry about the president’s health. Don’t worry about the fact that he can’t communicate a message and try and ignore it. I just – I don’t think that would be a winning strategy.

Source: Why Democratic Rep. Adam Smith thinks Biden isn’t the right party pick for this moment

Does transparency have to be transparent? A warning from SMITH on the nuclear astrophysics experiments with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

SMITH: OK? Honest is completely different from transparent. Maybe it’s OK, but they’re not letting us see so that we can independently be sure. It’s different from honest.