Sherrod Brown calls on Biden to drop out of the race towards Trump and joins different Democrats

The number of congressional Democrats calling on President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race rose to more than 35 on Friday afternoon. The Biden campaign co-chairman said the president is “weighing what he should be weighing, which is who is the best candidate to win in November and carry forward the values ​​of the Democratic Party.”

Also on Friday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, a senator from Ohio, became the highest-ranking member of Congress to date to call on Biden to end his re-election campaign. NBC News first reported Brown's decision.

“I agree with the many Ohioans who have reached out to me,” Brown said in a statement. “At this critical time, our full attention must be returned to these important issues. I think the president should end his campaign.”

Brown, a Democrat, faces a tough fight for the Senate seat in Ohio, a state that former President Donald Trump won in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

Earlier that day, a group of more than 50 former U.S. foreign and security officials called on Biden to withdraw his candidacy. Among them was Anthony Lake, who served as national security adviser under former President Bill Clinton.

“We firmly believe that ongoing concerns about your continued candidacy and the growing likelihood of Donald Trump's Electoral College victory put your national security accomplishments – and our country and your legacy – at unacceptable risk,” the group wrote.

By late Friday afternoon, about 15 percent of the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives had publicly stated that they wanted the party to field another candidate in the November election to run against Trump, the former president and current nominee of the Republican Party.

Senator Chris Coons, the Delaware Democrat who is co-chairing Biden's campaign, told reporters: “I am confident that he will hear what he needs to hear from his colleagues and the public.”

Coons' comment contradicts what he said just days after Biden's poor performance in a debate against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on June 27, raising doubts about the president's mental state.

“The stakes in this race couldn't be higher, and the only Democrat who has ever beaten Donald Trump is Joe Biden,” the senator told ABC News on June 30.

“He is our candidate for November and has the best chance of beating him,” said Coons, whose seat is in Biden's home state.

Coons wrote in a social media post on Friday following his remarks in Aspen, Colorado: “I fully support the President. He told me he is in it to win. I am behind him 100% because I know he can beat Trump just like he did last time.”

Biden's other campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, on Friday rejected growing calls from Democrats in Congress for Biden's resignation.

“You have heard time and time again directly from the President: He will win this race, he is our nominee and he will be our President for a second term,” O'Malley Dillon said in a statement.

Biden, who is isolating at his beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, because of a Covid-19 infection, said in his own statement Friday afternoon: “I look forward to returning to the campaign trail next week to continue to expose the threat posed by Donald Trump's Project 2025 agenda while arguing for my own record and the vision I have for America.”

“The stakes are high, and the outcome is clear,” Biden said. “Together, we will win.”

But two people familiar with the situation told NBC News that members of Biden's family have discussed how he would exit the campaign against Trump if he made that decision.

By late Friday afternoon, more than 30 Democrats in the House of Representatives and four Democratic senators had called on Biden to withdraw his candidacy.

Henrich and Brown joined Jon Tester of Montana, who made his announcement Thursday, and Peter Welch of Vermont.

The representatives who announced Friday that the party would nominate a new candidate were: Representatives Sean Casten and Chuy Garcia of Illinois, Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasy of Texas, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Greg Landsman of Ohio, Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Kathy Castor of Florida, Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky and Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico.

Biden received a boost on Friday when the Political Action Committee of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus endorsed the 81-year-old's candidacy for re-election.

“This November, we will use the power of our community to defeat Donald Trump and his Project 2025 and re-elect President Biden,” CHC Bold PAC said in a statement.

A Biden campaign memo obtained by NBC News said Friday morning that Biden would remain the Democratic presidential nominee in November and that the party had “no plans for an alternative candidate.”

“Although voters repeatedly mention President Biden's age when contacted, our target voters – both repeat voters and true swing voters – still plan to vote for him. This makes clear that the debate has not hurt support among the voters who will decide this election,” Dan Kanninen, the Biden campaign's swing states director, wrote in the memo.