TV interview fails to quell Democrats’ concerns about Biden’s fitness

President Joe Biden’s Friday night TV interview does not seem to have quelled an uprising within his own party to end his campaign after a halting debate performance against Donald Trump.

A fifth House Democrat, Angie Craig of Minnesota, joined her colleagues on Saturday in calling for the president to step aside, as reports indicate more could follow soon.

In his rare primetime ABC News interview, Mr Biden dismissed his debate performance as just a “bad episode” and said only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to end his bid for re-election.

Mr Biden is spending Saturday at his family home in Delaware before two public events on Sunday.

While no senior members of the party have called on the president to quit, the unease amongst Democrats is palpable.

Some polls show Trump’s lead over Mr Biden widening, and many are concerned about losing the presidency and House seats, along with the Senate majority, if he leads the ticket.

On Saturday, congresswoman Craig, who is running in a competitive district in Minnesota, said she did not believe that the president could “effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump.”

She said while she respects the president’s decades of service, she is calling for Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee.

“This is not a decision I’ve come to lightly, but there is simply too much at stake to risk a second Donald Trump presidency,” she said in a statement.

Minutes after the ABC interview, Texas congressman Lloyd Doggett, the first House Democrat to call for Biden to drop out of the race, said on CNN that the “need for (Biden) to step aside is more urgent tonight than when I first called for it”.

He said the longer it takes Mr Biden to make a decision to withdraw, the “more difficult for a new person to come on board who can defeat Donald Trump.”

Other House Democrats including congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts called on Mr Biden to withdraw from the race on Friday. They join Arizona lawmaker Raúl Grijalva who called for Biden to end his candidacy on Wednesday.

In his interview, Mr Biden declined to take a cognitive test and make the results public to prove he is fit to serve another term.

“I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test – everything I do [is a test],” he told George Stephanopoulos.

This response did not resonate well with Democratic congresswoman Judy Chu of California, who told news outlet Politico that his answer was “unsettling and not particularly convincing, so I will be watching closely every day to see how he is doing, especially in spontaneous situations”.