A House Democrat said he doesn't think President Joe Biden should run for reelection because it could lead to former president Donald Trump retaking the White House.
"We’re at grave risk of another Trump presidency," Rep. Dean Phillips (D., Minn.) told the Washington Post in an interview this week, saying Biden should "pass the torch, open the stage."
Phillips has been vocal for months about what most Democrats have hesitated to say publicly: Biden's age and poor polling suggest he should not seek reelection. Phillips has said Biden shouldn't run since last year.
"I’m doing this to prevent a return of Donald Trump to the White House," Phillips said this week.
Phillips suggested in July that he is considering a run against Biden for the nomination.
He told the New York Times that he has "been overwhelmed with outreach and encouragement" and was going to make a decision.
While Phillips has made no announcement regarding his plans for 2024, he is sticking to his call for Biden to stand down.
"I just felt compelled to raise my voice in the face of what I consider to be an unwillingness to confront the truth right now," Phillips told the Post.
Phillips pointed to Biden's age, the highest of any president in history, as a concern.
"God forbid the president has a health episode or something happens in the middle of a primary," Phillips said.
A Reuters poll this month showed many voters who chose Biden in 2020 might not vote for him again.
Nineteen percent of Biden's 2020 voters who answered the poll said they weren't sure who they would select or they would pick someone other than Biden or Trump. Six percent of Biden 2020 supporters said they will pick Trump.
The Biden campaign has spent months focusing on the president's economic policies, or as the White House calls them, "Bidenomics," to sway voters. But the number of Americans who approve of Biden's handling of the economy isn't shifting. Just 36 percent of voters approve of Biden's handling of the economy, lower than the 42 percent who approve of his overall job performance, according to new polling from the Associated Press.