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- Biden reportedly blew up at a House Democrat who’s skeptical of his candidacy on a Zoom call.
- “Tell me who did something that you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son,” Biden said.
- Biden has insisted he will remain in the race, despite congressional Democrats’ concerns.
During a tense Zoom call with members of the centrist New Democrat Coalition on Saturday, President Joe Biden reportedly took a swipe at Rep. Jason Crow’s military service.
The exchange, according to Puck News, took place after Crow, a Colorado Democrat who’s been publicly skeptical of Biden’s continued viability in the wake of a disastrous debate performance last month, asked the president a question about national security.
Biden reportedly replied:
“I put NATO together. Name me a foreign leader who thinks I’m not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy. Tell me! Tell me who the hell that is! Tell me who put NATO back together! Tell me who enlarged NATO, tell me who did the Pacific basin! Tell me who did something that you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son—and I’m proud of your leadership, but guess what, what’s happening, we’ve got Korea and Japan working together, I put AUKUS together, anyway!”
Crow, a former Army Ranger elected to Congress during the 2018 “Blue Wave,” earned the Bronze Star Medal for his service during the Iraq War. The award is given to members of the military who show acts of heroism in the field or had an otherwise praiseworthy tenure.
Biden’s son Beau, who died in 2015, also served in Iraq and received a Bronze Star.
According to the report, Crow then said that Biden’s message wasn’t “breaking through” to voters.
“You oughta talk about it!” Biden reportedly replied. “On national security, nobody has been a better president than I’ve been. Name me one. Name me one! So I don’t want to hear that crap!”
The day after the call, Crow said on CBS’s Face the Nation that Biden “heard our message very clearly” and that the president “promised to come back to us with more information to address our concerns and to answer our questions.”
A source familiar with Biden’s calls with congressional Democrats — which in recent days have also included the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus — emphasized that Biden has open to feedback from lawmakers, rather than merely defensive.
While some of the conversations around Biden’s viability have grown muted in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, they have yet to fully dissipate.
As of Wednesday, 19 House Democrats and one Democratic senator have publicly called on Biden to withdraw from the race, while others have flatly declared that they no longer believe he will be able to defeat Trump in November.
