Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet warns Biden could lose to Trump in 'landslide' after debate

WASHINGTON – Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said Tuesday night he thinks President Joe Biden cannot beat former President Donald Trump in the November presidential election, the most stark comments from a Senate Democrat to date.

“Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide, and take with him the Senate and the House,” Bennet, a three-term senator, told CNN. “So for me, this isn’t a question about polling. It’s not a question about politics. It’s a moral question about the future of our country.”

Bennet stopped short of calling upon Biden to step out of the race, but made the case that Democrats have a "moral obligation" to "do everything we can" to beat Trump during an interview with Kaitlan Collins.

He noted that Biden was nine percentage points ahead of Trump on a national level at this point in the 2020 cycle and that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was five points ahead of Trump in the 2016 cycle. Biden is currently around two percentage points behind Trump as of Tuesday night, according to polling averages.

"I'm sure President Biden has a different view of his prospects in this election than I do, but we should be having a discussion about that," Bennet said.

"The White House, in the time since that disastrous debate, I think, has done nothing to really demonstrate that they have a plan to win this election, that they have a convincing plan to win in the battleground states where we have to win in order to win the election. And they need to do that," Bennet said.

The interview comes after Biden's debate stumbles last month kicked off a panic within the party over whether he can effectively represent them in an election many Democrats see as an existential fight against Trump and his Republican allies.

Senate Democrats met for the first time in more than two weeks on Tuesday, and lawmakers leaving the caucus lunch meeting were tight-lipped about the nature of the conversations. However, they made it clear that they were unwilling to create a public firestorm that might push Biden to leave his post as the party's nominee.

Bennet and a handful of his colleagues, however, have been arguing that Biden must do more to show voters that he is capable of successfully prosecuting a case against Trump in the general election.

If Biden is at the top of the ticket, Bennet argued on CNN, he could also impact other races beside his own: The Colorado lawmaker said Democrats could risk losing the House and Senate in the fall, and Trump would likely have additional Supreme Court nominees if he's reelected to a second term.

"I believe the entire future of our country is at stake," Bennet said. "I think it's critically important they address the concerns of the American people, not ignore them."

Bennet noted in the CNN interview that no one in the Senate's caucus meeting directly said they believe Biden should drop out of the race.

Biden has made clear that he has no intention of ending his reelection bid. In a letter to Congressional Democrats Monday morning, Biden said he is "firmly committed" to remaining the party's nominee.

"There are a lot of days between now and election day, and the hard work of earning every single vote is far from over," Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement to multiple outlets after Bennet's interview.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate Democrat Michael Bennet warns of Biden's grim outlook vs. Trump