Democrats, media demand Biden do more interviews, press conferences amid debate fallout

Join Fox News for access to this content Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account - free of charge. By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News' Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive. Please enter a valid email address. Having trouble? Click here.

Members of the media and prominent Democrats are calling on President Biden to engage more with the press following a disastrous debate performance that left many worried about the president's chances of beating Donald Trump in the fall.

"The only way for him and the campaign to respond is not by talking to senators or governors, because this is not a tell me situation. It's a show me situation. So he'd have to be out and about in the hurly-burly of a campaign, open-ended press conferences with folks like you, engagements with voters that are unscripted," Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told CNN on Wednesday. "I do think that the response here would have to involve being very much in the public in an unscripted situation, as opposed to a few interviews or conversations with governors."

Biden, who has done fewer formal interviews and press conferences than any of his recent predecessors, joined ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to President Bill Clinton, for an interview on Friday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that Biden also plans to hold a press conference during the upcoming NATO summit.

"An interview at this point would just be a Band-Aid on a giant, gaping bullet hole. This body President Biden is bleeding out, and a single interview is not going to change that. The news in the last couple of hours is just even more