US President Joe Biden is facing growing pressure from within his party to prove he is physically and mentally fit for the presidency, with Democrats calling for him to publicly end his reelection bid for the first time.
Biden’s candidacy has been cast in a dark shadow by his disastrous performance in a debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump, in which the 81-year-old Democrat stumbled and lost his train of thought.
On Tuesday, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett became the first member of his party to publicly call on Biden to drop out of the race.
“I represent the heart of the district once represented by Lyndon Johnson, when under very different circumstances he made the difficult decision to withdraw,” Doggett said in a statement.
“President Biden should do the same.”
Rep. Marie Grusenkamp Perez, D-Washington state, stopped short of calling on Biden to withdraw but said she believes his performance in Thursday’s debate will cost him his loss in the November election.
“We all saw what we saw. We can’t change that. I think the truth is Biden is going to lose to Trump. I know it’s hard, but I think the damage was done in that debate,” Perez said in an interview with KATU News Channel in Portland, Oregon.
Maine Rep. Jared Golden also believes Trump will win, saying “that’s OK.”
“Many Democrats are panicking about whether President Joe Biden should withdraw as their party’s nominee,” Golden wrote in an opinion piece published in the Bangor Daily News.
“Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn also joined those scrutinizing Biden’s condition, saying he was justified in expressing concerns about his health after the debate.
“I think it’s a legitimate question to ask: Is this a seizure or is this a symptom? So it’s totally legitimate for people to ask that question of either candidate,” Pelosi said in an interview on MSNBC.
After the interview, a spokesman for Pelosi told The New York Times that she had “full confidence” in Biden and planned to attend the inauguration.
Democratic officials have been privately expressing concerns about Biden’s fitness to run to the media for days, but their public comments will increase pressure on the president to ease doubts about Biden’s electability that have dominated headlines despite damage control efforts from the White House and Democratic heavyweights such as former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
The White House said Tuesday that Biden will hold a series of meetings and appearances over the next few days, including a news conference and his first television interview in a month, to allay concerns about his health.
Biden is scheduled to meet with Democratic governors on Wednesday, and members of his team have been busy shoring up support within the party.
While acknowledging his poor debate performance, Biden’s campaign has rejected suggestions he should resign and denied claims he suffers from dementia or cognitive impairment.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden had had a “bad night” after coming down with a cold during the debate.
“We really want to take a new step on this,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
“We really want to get out there and speak directly to the American people.”
Speaking at a fundraiser late Tuesday, Biden blamed his poor performance on back-to-back trips to France and Italy, despite spending the week leading up to the debate privately at Camp David, the presidential retreat.
“I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel the world a few times,” Biden said.
Biden added that he hadn’t listened to his advisers about his travel schedule and joked that he “nearly fell asleep on stage” during the debate.
A CNN poll released after the debate found that three-quarters of registered voters said Democrats would have a better chance of winning the election if someone other than Biden ran.
Voters also favor Trump over Biden, 49 percent to 43 percent.
Vice President Kamala Harris fared slightly better, with 45% approval to Trump’s 47%.
Other Democrats who have emerged as possible successors, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, are trailing Trump by similar margins as Biden.
Though Biden’s campaign tried to portray his appearance at the debate as a one-off, his shaky appearance was just the latest in a series of incidents that raised questions about his age, a long-standing concern among voters.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll released in February found that 86% of respondents said Biden is too old to serve another term as president.
Harris on Tuesday pushed back against suggestions that Biden should resign.
“Joe Biden is our candidate. We beat Trump once and we’re going to beat him again, period,” she said in an interview with CBS News.
