Never Trump Republicans plead with Democrats to take action after disastrous debate

As Democrats waffle over whether President Joe Biden should stand down as their 2024 nominee, Republicans who have railed against former President Donald Trump say they're frustrated Democratic leaders haven't sprung into action after the president’s poor debate performance last week.

A small group of former GOP lawmakers and conservative commentators who previously vowed to support Biden, dubbed "never Trumpers," have raised deep-seeded concerns that he won't defeat former President Donald Trump in the November election because of concerns about his age fueled by his rocky performance on the debate stage.

These Republicans are angry at Democratic officials who they believe have tried to downplay and dismiss serious questions about the 81-year-old Biden’s competency and electability for months, not just the last few days.

“They kind of made light of all the concerns about his age,” said Health Mayo, founder of the center-right, anti-Trump group Principles First. “To see him come out like that, it just really felt like, you know, the campaign had blindsided not just the Democratic Party, but the rest of the country.”

Biden's campaign has repeatedly said the president is not dropping out of the 2024 race.

In the days following the debate, prominent Democrats largely expressed unflinching support for Biden. The leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, have argued that the debate marked one “bad night” for Biden, rather than a campaign ending event.

Sarah Matthews, a former deputy press secretary for Trump who has become an outspoken critic of her former boss, isn’t buying that message.

“Stop with the gaslighting of trying to throw excuse at the wall and see what sticks,” Matthews said as she criticized Democratic leaders. “This wasn't one night. You can't blame it on this gasp or cold. Ultimately, the buck stops with the president.”

She and a handful of other anti-Trump conservatives told USA TODAY said they believe Biden should bow out of the 2024 race and allow a younger Democratic leader to join the ticket. They suggested red and swing-state governors such as Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, Colorado’s Jared Polis and Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania.

“The only Democrat who could possibly lose to Trump is Biden,” Matthews said, but said she believes there's still a chance Biden could still win. “I’m just saying that with him as the nominee, Democrats are rolling the dice.”

Still, conservatives who are worried about the threat of Trump returning to the White House say they are under no illusion that Democrats will listen to their point of view about dropping Biden. The Biden campaign brought on moderate conservatives like former Rep. Adam Kinzinger as surrogates and hired a full-time Republican outreach director dedicated to reaching members of the GOP before Thursday's debate, but those efforts don't mean Democrats will make fundamental choices based on conservative concerns.

Many anti-Trump Republicans who have staked their careers on dissenting against Trump acknowledged that they are largely subject to the whims of a party they once fought against.

Former Georgia Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican who at one point was considering running for president on a consensus ticket with the group No Labels, said Democrats deserve the time to “work through this as a family.”

But he added that they’re quickly “running out of time.” There are less than five months until the general election. The Democratic convention, where the party will formerly choose its nominee, is in just over a month.

Regardless of what Democrats decide to do, never Trump Republicans said their mission remains the same: make sure Trump doesn’t win reelection. Members of the informal club said their message to their fellow Republican and moderate voters will continue to hinge on arguments that Trump is dangerous to democracy, particularly as he faces state and federal charges on allegations he tried to steal the 2020 election.

But will never Trumpers back away from Democrats if Biden is the nominee? Mayo predicted his peers will still do everything in their power to get him elected, joking that he’d “vote for a tree stump” before Trump.

It’s an effort Duncan acknowledged was “a lot easier last week.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Anti-Trump Republicans push Democrats after Biden debate debacle