Biden fails to quiet Democratic doubters as more express concern about his prospects

President Biden is facing more calls from Democratic lawmakers to step aside as the party’s nominee. Since his Thursday night press conference several House Democrats have issued statements asking for the president to leave the race. They join other congressional Democrats who made similar calls earlier this week. White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López reports.

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Geoff Bennett: President Biden is facing more calls from Democratic lawmakers to step aside as the party’s nominee since his Thursday night press conference.

Amna Nawaz: Five House Democrats, Jim Himes, Eric Sorensen, Scott Peters, Brittany Pettersen, and Mike Levin, have all issued statements asking for the president to step down. They joined 15 other congressional Democrats who’ve made similar calls earlier this week.

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has the latest.

Joe Biden, President of the United States: Thank you. Please be seated.

Laura Barron-Lopez: With all eyes on his high-stakes press conference…

Joe Biden: I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m in this to complete the job I started.

Laura Barron-Lopez: … President Biden played defense Thursday night, trying to prove that he’s still fit to run for reelection.

Joe Biden: A lot can happen. But I think I’m the best qualified — I know — I believe I’m the best qualified to govern. And I think I’m the best qualified to win.

Laura Barron-Lopez: And while there were gaffes and slip-ups.

Question: What concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’ ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?

Joe Biden: Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump (sic) to be vice president if I think she’s not qualified to be president.

Laura Barron-Lopez: He gave detailed answers on foreign policy and national security.

Joe Biden: China has to understand that if they are supplying Russia with information and capacity, along with working with North Korea and others to help Russia in armament, that they’re not going to benefit economically as a consequence of that.

Laura Barron-Lopez: And went after Donald Trump on his plans for a second term.

Joe Biden: Do you think democracy is under siege based on Project 2025? Do you think he means what he says when he says he’s going to do away with the civil service, eliminate the Department of Education? We have never been here before. And that’s the other reason why I didn’t, as you say, hand off to another generation. I have got to finish this job.

Laura Barron-Lopez: But it wasn’t enough to stop some Democrats from urging him to step aside as the party’s nominee.

Immediately after the press conference, Connecticut Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement calling on Biden to step away from the presidential race and urged Democrats to act fast.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT): This is not about one press conference, one debate, one speech. This is about the presidency of the United States. This needs to be resolved, I don’t know, in the next five to seven days, because we just went 10 days where the story was not Donald Trump promising totalitarianism. It was, how is Joe Biden going to do in the big boy press conference?

Laura Barron-Lopez: Despite the growing number of congressional Democrats calling for Biden to drop out of the race, longtime allies like Congressman Jim Clyburn reaffirmed their support for the president.

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC): I would hope that we will focus on the substance of this man, rather than these sometimes misspoken words and phrases, and how he has run this country. I’m riding with Biden no matter what direction he goes, no matter what method he takes. I’m with Joe Biden.

And if he were to change his mind, I will just answer the question that I would be all in for the vice president.

Laura Barron-Lopez: As Democrats figure out what to do about their nominee, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he met with the president shortly after Thursday’s press conference.

In that meeting, Jeffries said that he directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives, and conclusions about the path forward that the caucus has shared. In an attempt to assuage fears, Biden himself virtually met Friday with some members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and planned to speak with more Hill Democrats over the weekend.

For now, the president has no plans to step aside, unless his advisers say otherwise.

Joe Biden: Unless they came back and said, there’s no way you can win, me. No one’s saying that. No poll says that.

There are other people who could beat Trump too. But it’s awful hard to start — start from scratch.

Laura Barron-Lopez: And members of the president’s inner circle, like former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, say yesterday’s press conference are reason enough to end the freak-out and unite behind Biden.

Hitting the campaign trail today in the battleground state of Michigan, the president showed no signs of backing down. His next test, another cable news interview on Monday and campaign stops next week.

For the PBS “News Hour,” I’m Laura Barron-Lopez.