WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden continued his debate damage control in an interview with ABC News Friday night, trying to convince Democrats that he is the best candidate to beat former President Donald Trump in this fall’s presidential election.
But behind the scenes, the interview did little to ease the fears of House Democrats who worried that Biden’s debate performance would irreparably damage his candidacy.
Hours after Biden gave a 22-minute interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, more than a half-dozen Democrats in Congress used harsh words to describe Biden’s political situation, including “heartbreaking,” “hopeless” and “terrible.”
On Saturday morning, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) became the latest Democrat, and the first to step forward, to call on Biden to “step back for the next generation of leadership.”
Meanwhile, a Democratic lawmaker who previously supported Biden told NBC News he would break his silence about Biden’s political future “soon.”
“It’s saddening,” the congressman said of Biden’s interview. “It’s completely unrealistic and disconnected from the truth.”
A senior aide to another top House Democrat said there had been specific discussions about the top Democrat expressing his concerns directly to the president in an open letter. Because Congress was not in session last week, lawmakers decided to wait until they were in Washington to do so, the aide told NBC News.
“Everyone on the front lines is furious and personally ready to pull the trigger to ask Biden to step down, but politically they’re totally scared,” said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.
One House Democrat predicted there would be more calls for Biden to resign in the coming days.
“Denial of the problem is not the solution, nor is it the path to convincing voters that he has the ability or the vision for another four years,” the lawmaker said.
Another lamented Biden’s refusal to withdraw from the race.
“We are fiercely defending our democracy and we sincerely hope that the president will be afforded the leniency that comes with defeating President Trump in 2020 and deciding to pass the baton,” House Democrats said.
During Friday’s interview, Biden was asked multiple times whether he had taken a cognitive test or was planning to undergo an evaluation and make the results public. He each time deferred, pointing to his responsibilities as president and insisting that he gets tested every day.
One House Democrat said the refusal to be tested was “problematic.”
“There’s a growing sentiment in many quarters that we need to act, that we need a different candidate to act,” one veteran House Democrat said after Biden’s interview. The lawmaker said the interview alone wasn’t enough to make a judgment about Biden, but that it could be useful when combined with his public comments.
Senate Democrats told NBC News that Biden’s interview is “a step, but by no means the last step.”
The senator said it was “not clear” whether Biden could weather the political turmoil, but added that those calling for him to step down “have not laid out a path forward, nor have they laid out an alternative plan to get there.”
Asked for comment, the Biden campaign said the interview showed the president’s ability to answer tough questions. The campaign also noted that the president will explain how he thinks about the choice in November.
At the same time, many Democrats who have emerged as potential future presidential candidates rallied around Biden before the debate to reiterate their support for the president, including Governors Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Wes Moore of Maryland.
Nanette Barragan, chair of the House Hispanic Caucus, also said she had no concerns about Biden.
“He clearly understands the questions and the topics and answers accordingly,” she said. “It was a tough interview, but I think he handled it well.”
