Tester and Brown, the most vulnerable senators, remain silent in the face of calls for Biden to step down

Tester said Biden was “100 percent on board”

President Joe Biden is expected to step down and allow another Democrat to take his place in the November election.

That’s the message being sent by many liberal pundits, Democratic operatives, donors and now a Democratic member of Congress after last week’s disastrous presidential debate. New York TimesIn his op-ed calling on Biden to drop out of the race, he said he “failed his own test” and was engaging in “a reckless gamble.”

But the two most vulnerable Democratic senators, Jon Tester (Montana) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), have remained conspicuously silent on whether the most unpopular president in modern history, according to polls, should lead the way in November.

Spokespeople for both men did not respond to a request for comment, and neither senator offered an opinion on the debate performance, which has sparked a sea of ​​speculation about the future of Biden’s political career. Their two X accounts, unlike the frenzy of various other lawmakers and pundits, are instead dedicated to generic campaign posts about Brown’s commitment to “the dignity of work” and Tester’s warm wishes for “a great weekend.”

Ohio and Montana are prime Republican targets. Both men represent states that former President Donald Trump won handily in 2016 and 2020, and both have sought to distance themselves from Biden well before the debate.

Whether this strategy will work is unclear. Tester and Brown are among Biden’s most reliable voices in the Senate, according to FiveThirtyEight, and no public polls have shown either man scoring above 50% against their Republican opponents — a red flag for their reelection prospects.

Tester appeared to acknowledge that former President Donald Trump could very well win a second term when asked by a local news outlet. In response to a question about whether Biden should step down, a spokesperson for Tester said the senator has “always worked with President Trump when it was right for Montana and stood up to President Biden when it didn’t work for Montana. He will do whatever it takes to stand up for Montana, no matter who is in the White House.”

Brown, meanwhile, declined to comment when asked by a local news anchor, saying instead: “I’m focused on my job, which is fighting for women’s rights, which is focusing on this campaign and the contrast between me and (Republican opponent) Bernie Moreno, and that will continue to be my focus.”

Those answers won’t be enough, according to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Biden’s debate performance has unleashed a new campaign message, as well as a huge opportunity for the group.

Since June 28, the night of the debate, the NRSC has been sending out press releases to reporters castigating Democratic senators for dithering over Biden’s decision to stay in the race. Most polls taken after the debate show that support for the president is down among voters, with a large majority believing he lacks the mental capacity to stay in the race.

“Joe Biden just delivered the most shocking debate in modern history, but Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown refuse to acknowledge the obvious: Biden is unfit to be president,” said a national Republican strategist with ties to several Republican Senate candidates. “Tester and Brown are hard-core liberal Democrats who will do anything for the party, even if it means lying to their voters.”

The NRSC also ran a digital ad in which vulnerable Democratic senators previously defended Biden’s mental acuity and pledged their support for his reelection, while also cutting to some of Biden’s most embarrassing moments from the debate. In one clip, Tester said, “I’ve been around (Biden) and when I saw him on the news, he was 100 percent in favor… he’s fine.”

“I think every party has a problem,” Brown says in an excerpt from a CNN interview, after being asked if he fears Democrats have a “Joe Biden problem.”