By Saturday, the fight showed signs of intensifying.
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), one of the Democratic Party's most at-risk opponents, called on Biden to drop out of the race Saturday morning, saying there is “only a short time left to secure the candidate best suited to get our case across and win.”
“Given what I saw and heard at last week's debate in Atlanta, and the President's own lack of a strong response following that debate, I do not believe the President can effectively campaign and defeat Donald Trump,” she said in a statement.
Her decision follows a series of meetings and decisions this weekend that have the party bracing for days of uncertainty as impasse deepens between the president and the party over the path forward. Biden has been encouraged by his family, particularly first lady Jill Biden and his son Hunter, who have been adamant about not letting party leaders force him out of the race. But outside his inner circle, many Democrats watching the race were growing anxious.
Craig is the fifth Democrat to call for Biden to resign, according to a Washington Post tally, with 13 other lawmakers and state governors also expressing concerns about Biden staying in office.
The Biden campaign quickly held two campaign events in Pennsylvania on Sunday, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York scheduled a conference call with House Democratic leaders for Sunday.
Democratic lawmakers return to Washington next week for the first time since Biden's shaky debate performance, and the president is also hosting a NATO summit and scheduled to hold a solo news conference. The coming days are expected to be emotional and potentially conflict-filled, with lawmakers considering whether to make more of Biden's previously private conversations about his candidacy public.
Biden used rallies in battleground states and prime-time television interviews on Friday to try to ease concerns about his candidacy. Some of his allies and campaign officials were reassured by his performance and felt his answers and responses in the interviews would not change their minds about his future campaign.
But Mr. Biden's defiant attitude throughout the day risked airing concerns among more nervous lawmakers. In interviews, Mr. Biden dismissed polls that suggest he will lose to Mr. Trump (“Every pollster I talk to says it's a 50-50 split”) and that show his approval rating at 36% (“Our polls don't show that”), and claimed he had no direct knowledge of Democratic discontent (“Everybody has said I should stay in the race…Nobody has said I should drop out”).
Asked how he would feel if the campaign went ahead and Trump won, he said: “As long as I gave it my all and did the best job I could, that's how I would feel. That's what this election is about.”
Biden is scheduled to hold two campaign events on Sunday in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, according to the White House schedule. Those events come after he canceled his attendance at the National Education Association conference in Philadelphia after union officials set up picket lines.
Trump is due to return to the White House on Sunday evening ahead of a NATO summit in Washington and hold a rare solo news conference on Thursday.
Rep. Jeffries' decision to hold the call with Democratic leaders came before Biden's Wisconsin rally and ABC's interview that aired Friday night, but lawmakers' restlessness prompted Rep. Jeffries to move up his weekly meeting, which usually takes place on a Wednesday when the House is in session, to a Sunday.
Biden and his aides have often dismissed some of the calls for him to drop out of the race, pointing to the fact that his most outspoken words have come from people who have said similar things before.
Julián Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development secretary in the Obama administration who ran in the 2020 primary and expressed concerns at the time, said on MSNBC Friday night that Biden is “basically in denial” about the “decline that people are clearly seeing.”
Former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who also ran in the 2020 Democratic primary and previously called on Biden to drop out of the race, said Friday that the president's interview “didn't change anything at all.”
“I don't think he energized anybody. I think he was out of touch with the reality on the ground,” he said. “It worries me.”
He was also backed by allies who had long defended him.
“President Biden has delivered incredible progress for the American people and plans to do even more in his next term,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) wrote on X. “I can't wait to help him continue taking on Trump and win in November.”
“Democrats need to be courageous,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) wrote on X, adding, “Joe Biden is on our side.”
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) was more positive, but said Biden needs to do more.
“Biden did a very good job in the 22 minute interview with Stephanopoulos,” he wrote on X. “But most of the questions were about Biden's competence. We need an extended live interview focused on where Biden plans to lead us over the next four years.”
Sherman also acknowledged that Biden “could give us another four great years,” but called for a longer live interview before ABC News airs the full interview on Friday.
“I think we need to test Biden further,” Sherman told CNN.
Marianna Sotomayor and Aji Paivala contributed to this report.
