After Joe Biden’s disastrous debate with Donald Trump, many Democrats are pressing the American president to be “honest” about his health, and questions are mounting about the responsibilities of his close associates.

For the first time today, a congressman, Texan Lloyd Doggett, called on Biden to withdraw from the campaign, citing among other things his performance in the telefight.

“I hope he will make the difficult and painful decision to retire. I respectfully urge him to do so,” Doggett said in a statement to the media. “President Biden saved our democracy by redeeming us from Trump in 2020. He must not hand us over to Trump in 2024,” he added.

“We have to be honest with ourselves that it wasn’t just a horrible night,” Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley told CNN earlier.

“People want to be sure that (…) the president and his team are being honest with us about his situation,” and Thursday’s phone call “was really an anomaly,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Monday, speaking to local channel WPRI-TV. Whitehouse, who is elected in Rhode Island, said he was “appalled” when Biden appeared very confused and at times completely lost in the debate with Trump.

Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House who wields powerful influence in the party, also said today that it is “legitimate” that some people wonder about the state of Biden’s health. “I think it’s legitimate for them to wonder if this is just an episode or a (permanent) situation,” the 84-year-old congresswoman told MSNBC, while hailing the president’s “vision.”

“I’m not a doctor. I can’t say what will happen in three or four years, but I believe based on my experience that he will continue to be a great president of the United States,” he said.

After the telefight, Biden has not given any live interview, nor a press conference, something that would oblige him to speak, just like in the 90-minute telefight with Trump, without an auto-cue. On Monday, after a terse statement about a Supreme Court ruling, a reporter asked him if he plans to withdraw from the race for the White House. The president turned his back on her and left the room without answering.

Question marks are also increasing regarding the responsibility of the close associates of the 81-year-old president, mainly some of his advisers such as Ron Klein, Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon, but also his wife, Jill Biden. Some, like Senator Peter Welch, accuse them of arrogance because they refuse to give a straight answer. In an interview with the Semafor website, published today, the Vermont Democrat called for “let’s face reality.”

Recent articles, notably on the Axios and Politico websites, speak of a president who is only functional between 10am and 4pm and only reads memos, written so as not to cause any resentment.

The White House has consistently brushed off any questions about the president’s mental abilities, often with obvious annoyance. A recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal, which spoke of Biden’s “weakening”, was met with sharp criticism, particularly scathing, from his communications team.

For several months now, the US president, who has publicly fallen several times, no longer uses the grand staircase of the presidential aircraft, preferring a smaller and more stable one. In recent weeks he has been surrounded by his advisers to get from the White House to the helicopter waiting for him on the green. Biden, who has always been prone to gaffes, has not held a major press conference since January 2022 and has limited his unscheduled conversations with reporters. He spends almost every weekend at one of his homes in Delaware, with no formal schedule. When he recently visited France, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Normandy Landings, he went directly from the airport to his hotel, where he stayed all day, without making any public appearance.