Joe Biden Pressured to Radically Change Platform as Democrats Revolt

President Joe Biden, who has been under scrutiny by the Democratic Party since his debate performance last month, is facing pressure from progressives to shake up his platform and include agenda items like Medicare for All, among other initiatives.

On Thursday, California Representative Ro Khanna criticized the Biden reelection campaign and its agenda at Netroots Nation, a progressive political convention in Baltimore.

Speaking on a panel organized by Our Revolution to discuss the path forward for progressive Democrats in the 2024 election, Khanna said, “What’s most missing [in Biden’s campaign] is not the correct pronunciation of every sentence, what is most missing is a bold vision for 2024, what we will do when we win.”

Khanna, the former co-chair of Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, didn’t call for the president to drop out of the race, but instead urged the campaign to adopt a more progressive policy agenda to attract progressive voters.

This agenda, Khanna suggested, should include universal child care, free public college, ending fossil fuel subsidies, and “Medicare for All,” among other initiatives. He characterized this as a “huge agenda that can inspire.” The president has previously opposed Medicare for All legislation, campaigning in 2020 on vetoing it if it reached his desk.

Khanna further said that while the Biden administration can talk about accomplishments and legislative feats, he urged the campaign to be more forward-looking, saying, “you have to talk about what we will do.”

He emphasized that this extends beyond domestic affairs, arguing that the president should also focus on foreign policy. He advocated for a campaign message that “in the next term, the president will bilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, as 143-plus countries around the world have done.”

The U.S. does not officially recognize Palestinian statehood, arguing that it should be achieved through negotiations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Concluding his remarks, Khanna said, “If we give people a vision, I think young people will respond and come out and vote.”

Newsweek reached out to Representative Khanna’s press team for comment via email on Thursday evening.

His comments come after President Biden’s debate performance received widespread criticism among party members, which has increased pressure on the incumbent to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Several congressional Democrats, including Vermont Senator Peter Welch, are urging him to step aside and allow a different candidate to take the party’s nomination.

While some are calling for the president to drop out of the race, others, like Khanna, are urging him to change his platform.

The panel was moderated by Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, who said, “The bottom line is this— progressives are pissed—given both the political and policy dynamics of this contest. Progressives want to stop a return of [former President Donald] Trump, but there’s a serious deficit of confidence that Joe Biden is the vehicle capable of achieving that.”

The latest aggregate polling from FiveThirtyEight shows Trump leading Biden by 2.1 percentage points.

Newsweek reached out to the Biden campaign for comment via email on Thursday evening.