President Joe Biden has yet to directly address growing anxiety within the Democratic Party about his viability as the party's nominee after his performance in last week's debate was widely criticized, but calls from current and former lawmakers and key party figures are growing.
Many leading Democrats have said they support the president, and only one has called for him to resign. Still, in television appearances, public statements and interviews with ABC News, key figures in the party have expressed serious concerns about Biden's mental health and pressed for reassurance.
The most vocal calls for Biden to step down have come from his previous Democratic primary opponents. Former Ohio congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tim Ryan wrote in an opinion piece published Monday night in Newsweek magazine that Biden should step down and Vice President Kamala Harris should become the Democratic nominee.
“He also promised to be a bridge president for the next generation… Sadly, that bridge collapsed last week,” Ryan wrote about Biden's debate performance. “It was heartbreaking to watch Joe Biden struggle. We must forge a new path.”
Julian Castro, a former Obama administration secretary of Housing and Urban Development who served in the Obama administration and ran against Biden in the 2020 presidential election, said on MSNBC on Tuesday that Democrats should find a candidate who is “stronger” than Biden.
“I think Democrats would be better off looking for another candidate,” Castro said.
And Sen. Joe Manchin, an independent who once made a name for himself as a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, has been persuaded to refrain from going to the same extent as Ryan and Castro, ABC News sources said.
After Biden's disastrous debate defeat, Manchin told several associates he was prepared to go on news shows Sunday to ask for Biden's resignation, but was discouraged by Democratic leaders after word spread, two people familiar with the private discussions told ABC News.
The facts were first reported by The Washington Post.
The White House said Tuesday it wanted Biden's debate performance to be “a new step.”
“First, I want to say we understand the concerns,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press conference on Tuesday. “We understand. It was not a good night for the president, as you all know.”
“But I will say this, and the president has said this over the last few days, especially right after the debate: He knows how to get the job done. And he knows how to get the job done, not because he says so, but because his track record proves it,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday that Biden plans to meet with Democratic lawmakers and governors on Wednesday to address their concerns ahead of his visit to the battleground states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania this weekend.
A group of Democratic governors, led by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, met Monday to catch up after the debate, according to people familiar with the matter.
According to two people briefed on the call and one governor who attended it, some governors expressed frustration with the president's performance at the debate and the lack of direct communication from the president to some of the governors who participated in the call. But one source familiar with the matter told ABC News that the Biden administration has been in “constant communication” with governors and their teams.
Some Democrats have called on Biden to stop giving speeches using a teleprompter and instead answer questions at a news conference or in-person interview.
Biden is expected to address those concerns and more with ABC News' “Good Morning America” co-host and “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos in his first television interview since the debate. The interview will premiere on “World News Tonight with David Muir” on Friday, July 5, with portions airing on “Good Morning America” Saturday and Sunday.
Panic began within the party immediately after the debate as Democrats expressed concern about the president's performance, most of whom asked to remain anonymous. Prominent party leaders, including former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, issued short statements in support of Biden.
But over the weekend, other key figures in the party also broke their silence, with some even openly raising doubts.
“There are very honest and serious and rigorous conversations taking place at every level of our party,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-N.Y., said on MSNBC on Sunday, “because our party is a political party and we have differences.”
Others defended Biden, arguing he was simply having a “bad night.”
“I thought President Biden's performance in the debate was weak,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Calif., co-chairman of the president's reelection campaign, said on ABC News' “This Week.”
“His voice was raspy and rough. He didn't answer some of the questions very forcefully, but I thought his performance in the debate was terrible, alongside Donald Trump. I think Joe Biden should make the decisions about his campaign, his debate preparation and the path forward.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries both appeared over the weekend to downplay the significance of Biden's debate gaffes and voice their support for the president. Several talented young Democratic governors seen as potential successors to the president, including Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, have also publicly endorsed Biden.
But other Democrats this week also raised questions about the president's fitness to serve.
Longtime Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told Rhode Island's CBS station WPRI on Monday that he was “pretty frightened” by the debate. Whitehouse said the public needed to be assured that “the president and his team have been open about the president's condition and that this is really something unusual and not a recent trend with the president.”
“I think people want to make sure this campaign is prepared to win,” Whitehouse added.
Also on Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas called on the president to withdraw from the race, saying, “President Biden continues to trail well behind Democratic senators in key states and also behind President Donald Trump in most polls. We had hoped the debate would provide the momentum to change that, but it has not happened.”
Doggett is the first Democrat to say Biden should resign.
As the pressure mounted, even Biden's staunchest supporters acknowledged the legitimacy of concerns about his acute condition and called on the president to sit tough interviews with reporters to ease concerns.
“I think it's a legitimate question to ask: Is this a seizure or is this a symptom?” Pelosi acknowledged in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday.
“I would encourage him to do interviews with serious journalists,” Pelosi said, “don't be shy, take any question fairly, just sit there and be Joe — demonstrate your values, your knowledge, your judgment and your empathy for the American people.”
Pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper, one of the first debate's moderators, in an interview Monday night, Coons said Biden “needs to perform publicly and repeatedly to reassure the American people that he can get the job done.”
“I haven't seen any evidence that the president is incapable of running for office and staying in office, and it's up to him to prove that in the coming weeks,” Coons said, “but I think his record in his first three years in office is the best that we could imagine.”
A member of the Democratic National Committee told ABC News that the party needs to stop fear-mongering.
“Let's get to work and stop whining,” said Maria Cardona, a member of the Rules and Bylaws Committee.
Michael LaRosa, a former press secretary to First Lady Jill Biden who served as special assistant to the president until mid-2022, said he believes only Biden's inner circle, which is made up mostly of family members, can influence Biden's political future.
“That's up to Mr. Biden, the Biden family, the Biden campaign. They need to make that decision as to whether they care about Joe Biden or they care about the Democratic Party and, if possible, whether the Democratic Party can win under Joe Biden,” he said.
And he echoed calls from many other Democrats that Biden needs to get in front of voters in an unscripted way if he wants to stay on the campaign trail.
“You don't get a second chance at the first debate,” he continued, “and you can't get by on delegate reports and teleprompters for the next four months.”
ABC News' Rachel Scott, MaryAlice Parks, John Parkinson, Oren Oppenheim, Isabella Murray, Selina Wang and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
