Congressman Greg Landsman, a freshman House member from Mount Washington, has become the latest in a growing list of Democratic officeholders to call for President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
“It is time for President Biden to step aside and allow us to nominate a new leader who can reliably and consistently make the case against Donald Trump and make the case for the future of America.,” Landsman said in a press release early Friday afternoon.
Early Friday evening, Sherrod Brown, Ohio's senior senator, put out a press release saying, "I think the president should end his campaign."
Brown said Ohio voters have been telling him that they want the campaign to be about pocketbook issues. The questions about President Biden have become a distraction, according to Brown.
On a day when Landsman became one of five more Democratic members of Congress saying the president needs to go, President Biden — who is in isolation for COVID-19, was telling the White House press he plans to return to the campaign trail next week.
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In his press release, Landsman heaped effusive praise on Biden for his record of accomplishments as president and expressed his contempt for Donald Trump, saying that “to allow Trump to become president and control all three branches of government puts our democracy and freedoms at great risk.”
Landsman, who is running for re-election, did not say in his release who he believes should replace Biden on the ticket.
But his Republican opponent, lawyer Orlando Sonza, said in a campaign press release that Landsman a “California radical,” falsely saying he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take Biden's place.
Landsman, in a phone conversation with WVXU, answered Sonza’s “California radical” comment with a joke.
“No, I can assure you I did not endorse Gavin Newsom,’’ Landsman said, referring to the Democratic governor of California.
Landsman told WVXU he did go on CNN Friday and said Vice President Harris would be a candidate who “would energize young voters and, as a former prosecutor, she would do well making the case that Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy.”
Sonza has been calling on Landsman for weeks now to call on Biden to drop his re-election plans.
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Landsman, Sonza says, “owes Ohioans an answer — is Joe Biden fit to remain as the country’s Commander-in-Chief?”
Speaking of fitness, Landsman said in his release that Trump’s acceptance speech on the last night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee “proved once again that he’s unfit to be president of the United States.”
“Most Americans are ready to move on from the politics of grievance; and they have deep and legitimate concerns that Mr. Trump will upend our democracy,’’ Landsman said.
