Republicans will retake the White House in this fall’s election, a House Democrat is predicting following President Biden’s dire debate performance. 

“While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that,” a Maine Democrat, Congressman Jared Golden, predicted on Tuesday in an opinion piece for the Bangor Daily News.

“Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise,” he said, adding that it didn’t rattle him because the outcome of the election — that President Biden will lose — “has been clear” for months. 

“Democrats’ post-debate hand-wringing is based on the idea that a Trump victory is not just a political loss, but a unique threat to our democracy. I reject the premise,” he wrote. “Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system.”

Ahead of July 4, Mr. Golden notes that the nation has survived wars, terrorism and changes that would shock the Founding Fathers. 

“Pearl-clutching about a Trump victory ignores the strength of our democracy,” he writes, adding that there are “hundreds of millions of freedom-loving Americans who won’t let anyone take away our constitutional rights as citizens of the greatest democracy in history.”

Mr. Golden’s stunning pronouncement comes as another congressional Democrat became the first to publicly ask Mr. Biden to drop out of the presidential race. 

Noting that the actions of Congress matter more for the economy than the president, Mr. Golden argues that “Some of Congress’ best work in recent years has happened in spite of the president, not because of him” and that Congress is the body that wrote and passed legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act. Regardless of who resides in the White House, he writes, lawmakers should work to stabilize Medicare and Social Security, guarantee abortion access, and end tax breaks for wealthy families and corporations. 

“I urge everyone — voters, elected officials, the media, and all citizens — to ignore the chattering class’s scare tactics and political pipedreams,” he writes. “This Independence Day, we should reflect on the history and strength of our great democracy, safe in the knowledge that no one man is strong enough to take it away from us.”