July 12, 2024 09:02 AM UTC

BREAKING: Rep. Pettersen Calls On Biden To "Pass The Torch"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Caitlyn Kim reporting for Colorado Public Radio on the first member of Congress from Colorado, Rep. Brittany Pettersen of JeffCo and points south and west, to call on President Joe Biden exit the 2024 presidential race in favor of “one of our many capable Democratic leaders.”

“Joe Biden saved our country once, and I’m joining the growing number of people in my district and across the country to ask him to do it again. Please pass the torch to one of our many capable Democratic leaders so we have the best chance to defeat Donald Trump, who is the greatest threat to the foundation of this country that we have ever faced,” she said in a statement.

In explaining her reasoning, Pettersen told CPR News that she really struggled with the decision because she considers the president “a genuinely good human who’s done so much for our country.” She noted that, having worked as an organizer for the Obama-Biden campaign in 2008, “he’s meant a lot to me personally.”

“And while it was difficult,” Pettersen said, it was “a right and clear decision.”

“The biggest threat is another Trump presidency and we have to speak out now because my son and my constituents can’t suffer the consequences,” she said.

Pettersen joins Colorado’s senior Sen. Michael Bennet, whose frank assessment of the race earlier this week helped break a logjam of dissenting voices in the party even as the White House fights hard to quell the growing movement to push Biden out of the race. Although Rep. Pettersen appears to be first out of the gate and will thus drive the news this morning, it’s been reported that a significant number of Democratic members of Congress may be about to issue their own calls for Biden to withdraw.

We’ll be watching for that as the day goes on. Watch this space for updates.