Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, penned a deeply personal letter to President Joe Biden earlier this month privately encouraging the president that there is “no shame in taking a well-deserved bow” out of the 2024 presidential election – and making his argument with comparisons to George Washington and Red Sox pitching great Pedro Martinez.
Raskin’s July 6 letter, first reported by the New York Times and obtained Thursday by CNN, offers rare insight into the delicate situation some of the president’s top allies are navigating as an isolated Biden weighs his political future. Biden has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race.
“I am not writing to presume to tell you what to do, Mr. President, because that is up to you and Jill and your family entirely. You will be the best judge of that. But I am writing to remind you of who you are,” Raskin said in the three-and-a-half-page letter, which he said he wrote as an admirer, supporter, fellow politician, friend, and “above, all, as a fellow citizen.”
Raskin confirmed the letter’s authenticity in a statement shared with CNN, saying, “I wrote that letter to the president over the Fourth of July weekend. My point was that we needed a strategic internal discussion about how to move forward to decisively win the election, which is of immeasurable importance to the future of America. The letter expressed my profound affection for the president, my great concern for the future of the country and my confidence in the judgment he would make. None of those things has changed.”
In the letter, the Maryland congressman extensively quotes Biden’s own words from a January 2024 speech on democracy near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, including what he described as a “remarkable passage” where the president referenced a painting of Gen. George Washington resigning his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army – going on to implicitly compare Biden to Washington.
“George Washington was at the height of his power. Having just defeated the most powerful empire on Earth, he could have held onto the power as long as he wanted. He could have made himself not a future president but a future monarch, in effect,” Raskin wrote.
Raskin continued, quoting Biden, “’In America,’ you say, ‘genuine leaders — democratic leaders, with a small ‘d’? don’t hold on to power relentlessly. Our leaders return power to the people. And they do it willingly, because that’s the deal. You do your duty. You serve your country.’”
Raskin said that in the coming months, “We have an overriding obligation to defeat the forces of resurgent monarchy and oppression. Everything else pales in comparison to this struggle, even your magnificent policy achievements.”
He framed Biden’s choice about the future of his reelection campaign as a political one.
Questions about Biden’s mental and physical stamina “are not just medical and scientific questions now. They are also political questions because both political leaders and tens of millions of voting citizens have formed judgments based on the events of the last few weeks. The judgment you must make in turn, therefore, is not only a private medical judgment about how you feel but a public political one about how others feel because, in the end, the people will decide the fate of this election and of our democracy itself,” Raskin wrote.
The congressman closed his letter with a sweeping metaphor comparing this moment in history to a 2003 American League Championship Series baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox’s pitcher, Pedro Martinez, Raskin wrote, “began to tire badly after 118 pitches” but “Martinez vigorously protested that he was fine and he could continue and give it his all despite all the statistics about what happens when pitchers play after throwing for so long.”
Martinez stayed in the game, and the Yankees went on to win.
Raskin connected Martinez’s choice to Biden’s.
“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics,” he wrote.
Raskin added, ”Your situation is tricky because you are both our star pitcher and our Manager. But in democracy, as you have shown us more than any prior president, you are not a Manager acting all alone; you are the co-Manager along with our great team and our great people. Caucus with the team, Mr. President. Hear them out. You will make the right decision.”
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