Interview appears to change few Democratic officials’ views on Biden
President Biden wanted to use his first televised interview since his poor performance at the debate to reassure his supporters and silence the voices within the Democratic Party calling for him to withdraw.
But many Democrats who spoke out after the interview, which aired Friday night on ABC News, said it did little to change their positions, regardless of whether they believed Biden should stay in the race or withdraw.
A handful of current and former Democratic officials who had called on Mr. Biden to end his re-election campaign said the interview did little or nothing to assuage their concerns. Credible supporters of the president’s re-election campaign similarly took to television networks, reiterating that they were sticking with Mr. Biden.
Other Democrats who had expressed concerns about the president’s performance but stopped short of calling for Biden to withdraw said the interview had not materially changed their views of his candidacy.
Critics of the president among Democrats, including those who called for him to step aside, said Biden appeared out of touch with or in denial about his re-election chances.
Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who was the first House Democrat to call for President Biden to drop out of the race, said in an interview on CNN shortly after the ABC broadcast that “the need for him to step aside tonight is more urgent than when I first called for it on Tuesday.” He added that Mr. Biden “does not want his legacy to be that he is the one who turned our country over to a tyrant.”
Rep. Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, also said Biden should step aside, telling CNN he found points in the interview “troubling” and that it was clear “the president of the United States does not have the strength that is needed to overcome the deficit here.”
“He felt that as long as he was doing the best he could, that was all that really mattered,” Mr. Quigley said, echoing Mr. Biden’s description of how he would feel if he lost to former President Donald J. Trump. “With the greatest respect: No.”
A handful of Democratic lawmakers who have consistently backed Biden said shortly after the interview that they would back the president. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Biden campaign chairman, and Rep. Robert Garcia of California said they were ready to help the president get re-elected in November.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has repeatedly tried to rally Democrats behind the president with profanity-laced social media posts, said, “Democrats need to grow a spine or grow a bunch — one or the other,” adding, “Joe Biden is our guy.”
Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a longtime ally of Mr. Biden, said on social media on Friday night that “Joe Biden is the one our country needs.”
And Representative Nanette Barragán, Democrat of California and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who had endorsed Mr. Biden, told CNN earlier on Friday that Democrats “should not be talking about” replacing him. Later in the evening, Ms. Barragán continued to defend Mr. Biden.
“It sounds like everyone is looking for concerns — I don’t see any,” she said. “He’s responsive. He’s to the point. He understands the questions and the issues clearly and responds accordingly. It’s a tough interview and I think he handled it well.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California and a Biden deputy, said in a statement that he expected more from Biden to win voters’ trust — and “that will take more than one interview.”
“I expect complete transparency from the White House on this matter,” Khanna said, “and a willingness to answer many legitimate questions from the media and voters about his capabilities.”
Julián Castro, the former Democratic presidential candidate who has called for Biden to withdraw, criticized the president after the interview, telling MSNBC that Biden had been “more stable” in the interview but denying “the decline that people can clearly see.”
Former Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, who has also said Biden should step aside, said after the interview: “I don’t think he’s made any change.”
“I don’t think he energized anybody,” Mr. Ryan said on MSNBC. “I think at some level he was out of touch with the reality on the ground.”
“I worry,” he continued with a nervous laugh. “I worry, like a lot of people, that he’s just not the person to do this for us.”
Mark Buell, a prominent Biden and Democratic Party donor who had raised questions about the president’s performance during the debate, said in a text message that “Biden is on a slope that he is trying to curb. If he can’t, he may soon become a verb.”
Maya C. Miller, Robert Jimison And Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington. Simon J. Levien contributed reporting from Massachusetts.
