SANTA ANA, Calif. (Tribune News Service) — Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., joined the growing chorus of Democrats who are asking President Joe Biden to forgo his reelection bid and told Biden how he felt directly in a virtual meeting Friday.

Levin said Friday after that meeting that he was “naturally concerned” following Biden’s debate performance last month, and expressed his concerns with House Democratic leadership.

“Making this statement is not easy. I have deep respect for President Biden’s five-plus decades of public service and incredible appreciation for the work we’ve done together these last three-and-a-half years. But I believe the time has come for President Biden to pass the torch,” said Levin.

“We must prevail against the incalculable threat Donald Trump poses to the American institutions of freedom and democracy,” he added. “Donald Trump actively seeks a bleak authoritarianism and the overthrow of the values which have guided us towards justice and prosperity for nearly two and a half centuries.”

Levin expressed his desire for Biden to drop out of the race directly to the president during a virtual meeting Friday morning before releasing his statement publicly, according to people in the meeting that was hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s political arm.

The meeting was supposed to be a private conversation between the BOLD PAC and Biden, said Rep. Lou Correa, who was part of the virtual gathering. Correa said it was made clear that only two people were supposed to ask questions of the president because of time constraints (Correa was one of those people; he inquired about the economy and immigration) and there were to be no leaks.

But then the president said he’d take one more question, and Levin expressed his wish for Biden to drop out of the race.

Biden “answered him completely, and then the conversation ended,” said Correa. “Everything was leaked. This thing went from just a molehill to a mountain.”

Correa couldn’t recall verbatim Biden’s response to Levin but said the president said something to the effect that he is not dropping out of the race but will instead move forward. CNN reported that Biden’s response was somewhat rambling, saying people have a “legitimate concern” about his ability to run for reelection, but “that’s why I think it’s important I gotta get out and show people everything from how well I move to how much I know and that I’m still in good shape.”

Correa said Biden answered the questions posed to him “eloquently.” He said it was a “good discussion.”

As to his question about the economy and the need for more workers and a better pathway for undocumented immigrants who work in the U.S., Correa said Biden “spoke much more about executive orders than I thought he was going to speak about. He had a lot of details.”

“To me, the guy is competent to run for president,” Correa, who has stuck up for Biden often during this particularly tumultuous week, said. “He was very emphatic about he’s not dropping out, he’s going to go through this.”

Still, once the meeting had ended, Levin publicly called for Biden to step aside from the presidential race.

“Once again, our national mettle must be forged in the crucible of history. It is time to move forward. With a new leader. Together,” Levin said.

A spokesperson for Levin confirmed that he was on the call, only adding: “It was a private discussion between members and the president.”

California’s Sen. Alex Padilla said he was on the call and described Biden as having “demonstrated once again that he is clear-eyed on the path forward to defeating Trump and MAGA extremism.”

“He’s had our communities’ backs over the last three years, and we’ll have his this November.”

Levin is the first Democrat in the House from Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties to publicly ask Biden to stop his reelection efforts. Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat, on Thursday called for a new candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket following Biden’s solo news conference Thursday evening.

“The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course,” Peters said. “We must find a candidate from our deep bench of talent who can defeat Donald Trump.”

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., has reportedly expressed privately that Biden should exit the race.

But Levin and Peters are part of more than a dozen House Democrats who have called publicly on Biden to drop out of the race, a number that has grown in recent days.

Democrats have grappled with whether Biden could – or should – continue to run for a second term following a disastrous debate performance last month. Since that televised debate, where Biden, 81, stumbled verbally and appeared at times to lose this train of thought, the president has faced mounting questions about his health and mental competency.

As Democratic lawmakers, activists and donors weigh whether Biden is the best to go head-to-head with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, Biden held a highly anticipated solo news conference Thursday. He gave opening remarks on NATO, using a teleprompter, and then fielded questions from selected journalists that ranged from foreign policy and the NATO summit to his health and mental competency.

Biden said he plans to stay in the race. “I believe I’m the best qualified to govern. I believe I’m the best qualified to win,” the president said.

In an interview earlier this week, Correa acknowledged that Biden has struggled a bit recently, particularly in the debate with Trump, but maintained he was “picking up steam again.”

He also said all the drama surrounding Biden’s reelection plans should serve as a wake-up call for Democrats.

“It really has shocked Democrats into knowing that now we have a real race,” he said. “I think this is good. You don’t want to wake up on Nov. 1 and say, ‘Oh my God, this thing is a real race.’ You want to wake up in early July … because it gives you time to work hard, and Democrats have never been afraid to work hard.”

A spokesperson for Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat who is leaving office early next year, pointed to earlier statements she’s made calling for Biden to meet with House Democrats.

Biden met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday, the New York Democrat told colleagues in a letter Friday.

“On behalf of the House Democratic Caucus, I requested and was graciously granted a private meeting with President Joe Biden,” said Jeffries. “In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together.”

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