Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is warning his House colleagues against openly casting doubt on the strength of President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, calling it “deeply self-destructive” if he ends up remaining the Democratic nominee.

Torres, who represents the New York borough of the Bronx, issued the reproach on Monday as some of his fellow Democrats speak out publicly and anonymously to the media in the aftermath of Biden’s disastrous debate.

“Regardless of where one stands on the question of President Biden’s political future, the intra-party mixed messaging strikes me as deeply self-destructive,” Torres said in a statement, released just as lawmakers return from the July 4th recess. “Those publicly calling on President Biden to withdraw should ask themselves a simple question: what if the President becomes the Democratic nominee?”

Torres’s statement echoed a letter Biden sent his colleagues that morning in which he reiterated he will not step aside.

House Democratic leaders have already begun to discuss with their members how to move forward, including a Sunday afternoon phone call in which several Democrats made the case for Biden to stand down, according to multiple reports. Those who want Biden to withdraw as the Democratic nominee now include senior members of the party, such as Reps. Joe Morelle (D-NY), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Adam Smith (D-WA), and Mark Takano (D-CA). 

Notably, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, expressed support for Biden on Monday.

“The drip, drip, drip of public statements of no confidence only serve to weaken a President who has been weakened not only by the debate but also by the debate about the debate,” Torres added. “Weakening a weakened nominee seems like a losing strategy for a presidential election. The piling-on is not so much solving a problem as much as it is creating and compounding one.” 

“The process by which we decide how to move forward matters as much as the decision itself,” the New York congressman said.

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House and Senate Democrats plan to huddle in their weekly caucus meetings on Tuesday. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) had also been encouraging Senate Democrats to meet to discuss the path forward, but the separate meeting has been scrapped for now.

Coming off President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance last week, former President Donald Trump surged ahead by two points in a new poll out of New Hampshire published on Monday.

The Saint Anselm College poll found 44% of New Hampshire voters said they would support Trump, compared to 42% who said Biden was their choice. Another 4% said they planned to vote for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

A similar poll conducted in December found Biden had a 10-point lead in the state. In this most recent poll, Biden is viewed favorably by 39% of respondents and unfavorably by 59%, while Trump holds a 42% favorable and 57% unfavorable rating. 

“Biden leads among voters who dislike both candidates. However, more Democratic voters are drifting toward independent candidates than their Republican counterparts,” New Hampshire Institute of Politics Director Neil Levesque said. “While 89% of Republicans are solidly backing Trump, Biden secures the support of only 82% of Democrats.”

Of those polled who watched the debate, 54% said Trump won, while just 6% said Biden won and 39% said there was no winner. The poll also found that 81% of poll respondents said the debate won’t affect their vote in November. 

Biden’s poor debate performance last week renewed concerns about whether he’ll be able to beat Trump or hold office for four more years. Biden has continued to defend his debate performance amid calls for him to drop out of the race. Notably, no Democratic lawmakers have joined those calls.

New Hampshire is considered to be “likely Democratic,” according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. In an average of statewide polling, Biden is still leading, although these averages do not factor in the most recent St. Anselm poll. 

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The last time a Republican candidate won the state of New Hampshire in a presidential election was George W. Bush in 2000. Biden won New Hampshire by seven points last cycle, earning 52.7% of the vote, compared to Trump’s 45.4%. 

The poll included the views of 1,700 registered voters from June 28-29. The margin of error is about 2.3%.