President Joe Biden's Friday night TV interview did little to quell the rebellion within his own party that has threatened to end his campaign after a disjointed debate with Donald Trump.
Angie Craig, the fifth House Democrat from Minnesota, joined her colleagues in calling for the president's resignation on Saturday, and more lawmakers are expected to follow suit, according to reports.
In a rare ABC News primetime interview, Mr Biden dismissed his debate performance as just “a bad episode” and said only an “almighty God” could persuade him to end his bid for re-election.
Mr. Biden, 81, will spend Saturday at his home in Delaware ahead of two official events on Sunday.
Although no party elders have called for the president to resign, there is a palpable sense of unease within the Democratic Party.
Some polls show Trump and Biden’s lead widening, and many fear that if Trump is elected, he could lose the presidency, his House of Representatives seat, and his Senate majority.
On Saturday, Rep. Craig, who is running in a tight race in Minnesota, said he does not believe the president can “effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump.”
She respected the president's decades of service, but called on Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee.
“This is not a decision I have made lightly,” she said in a statement. “But the stakes are simply too high to risk reelecting Donald Trump for a second term as president.”
Minutes after the ABC interview, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the first House Democrat to call for Biden to drop out of the race, told CNN that “the need for Biden to drop out is more urgent tonight than it was when I first made that call.”
He said the longer it takes Mr Biden to make a decision to withdraw, the more difficult it will be for “someone new to come in who can beat Donald Trump.”
Other House Democrats, including Reps. Mike Quigley of Illinois and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, called on Mr. Biden to drop out of the race on Friday. They were joined by Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, who called on the president to drop out of the race on Wednesday.
In an interview, Mr. Biden said he would take a cognitive test to prove he could run for another term and declined to release the results.
“I take cognitive tests every day. I take them every day. Everything I do is a test,” he told George Stephanopoulos.
California Democratic Rep. Judy Chu was not impressed by the response. She told Politico that his response was “unsettling and unconvincing, and I will be watching him closely every day to see how he fares, especially in impromptu situations.”
