‘Blindness is Not Bliss’: Second Congressional Black Caucus Member Warns Biden Could Costs Democrats the House

Photo by Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images)

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) raised the alarm on Wednesday over President Joe Biden’s impact on down-ballot races if he were to stay in the presidential race – as he has promised to do. Torres’s comments made him the second member of the Congressional Black Caucus to signal waning support for Biden in recent days.

“In determining how to proceed as a party, there must be a serious reckoning with the down-ballot effect of whomever we nominate,” Torres wrote in a statement, adding:

What matters is not how we feel but what the numbers tell us.
An unsentimental analysis of the cold hard numbers—which have no personal feelings or political loyalties—should inform what we decide and whom we nominate.
If we’re going to choose a particular path, we should be clear-eyed about its consequences. Blindness is not bliss amid the terrifying threat of a Trump presidency.

While Torres stopped short of calling for Biden to drop out, his messaging aligned more closely with that of Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), who warned on CNN Tuesday night that Biden on the ticket could cost Democrats “the whole thing” – meaning the White House, Senate, and the House.

Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX) took it a step further on CNN Tuesday, saying that vulnerable Democrats should “distance themselves” from Biden.

“My concerns are the concerns that everybody has. What I said this morning and expressed to my colleagues, particularly from members on the front line, is that I think they need to do whatever it is they need to do in order to come back and be reelected and so if they need to, you know, distance themselves, then that’s what they need to do,” Veasey said.

Both Torres and Veasey are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which has publicly supported Biden remaining in the race – support Biden and his team have vocally publicized in recent days.