It’s been nearly two weeks since President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, but Democrats are still grappling with the fallout.

The Democratic Caucus met behind closed doors just blocks from the Capitol at the DNC building, venting concerns about the party’s presumptive nominee and his ability to beat former President Donald Trump in November.

What You Need To Know

  • House Democrats met behind closed doors Tuesday to voice concerns about President Joe BIden's viability as a nominee to lead the Democratic ticket in November

  • The conversation comes nearly two weeks after Biden's debate debacle left many Democrats concerned that Biden would not only lose to Trump in November, but be a drag on down ballot races

  • California has 40 Democratic representatives in the House, and the response from them has been relatively mixed, with some saying they support Biden, while others are playing their cards closer to the vest

  • As of now, Biden shows no sign of backing down as the party's nominee

There are 40 Democrats in California’s 52 member House delegation, making up roughly 20% of the caucus’s membership. For now, Biden shows no backing down, and with the exception of a few, Democrats don’t seem ready to break with Biden, at least publicly for now. How California’s House Democrats proceed could be telling as to how the caucus at large is feeling. 

Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., admitted he was worried after watching Biden fail to defend his record against Trump on stage. But it was Biden’s response in the days following that reassured the Orange County lawmaker that Biden was up for the challenge of a grueling campaign.

“I want to see how he reacts after, you know, getting sacked in the end zone. Is he going to come out fighting or is he going to give up?” Correa said of Biden. His assessment? Biden “came out fighting, he came out fighting hard.” 

Correa said the voters have already spoken in choosing Biden to be the nominee through the primary process, noting that “at the end of the day, it's not a bunch of Congress people in a smoke-filled back room that are deciding if Biden's going to run.” But Correa said the debate, and the subsequent hand-wringing, is a harsh wake-up call for Democrats that this election is going to be a battle on all fronts — not just due to Biden’s age.

“Donald Trump, convicted of felonies 34 times — I think Democrats thought this was going to be a cakewalk, beating Trump. Now they're waking up and realizing, ‘Oh, my God, we've got a dogfight.’ And frankly, I'm happy people are waking up to the fact that this is going to be a tough fight,” Correa shrugged. “If Democrats are out there concerned, you know what? Put on your walking shoes and let's go out walking precincts door to door.”

But other Democrats were not so quick to embrace Biden, keeping him at arm's length.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., was critical to the Biden-Harris campaign’s efforts to get voters to write-in Biden on the ballot during the New Hampshire primary after the campaign didn’t file to appear on the ballot to comply with the DNC rules to have South Carolina as the party’s first primary.

But this week, Khanna gave a less-than-solid measure of support for Biden.

“We've got to focus on making the economic contrast with Donald Trump. We have a party that is focused on increasing wages for the working class, that's providing universal childcare, that's going to strengthen Medicare. Donald Trump wants to erode all of that. And that's the focus we need to make, in this election season,” Khanna said. “President Biden has the delegates. It's his decision what he wants to do. I respect that. I respect the nomination process. I will support vigorously whoever that nominee is, which right now, clearly is President Biden.”

Following Biden’s meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus last night, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus also came out in strong support of his candidacy. Chairwoman Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., told Spectrum News she’s “with the president. [I] am with the, I like to say, the Biden-Harris team.” 

Barragán appeared alongside First Lady Dr. Jill Biden in Allentown,  Pennsylvania last week, and said that Democrats need to recommit to getting out there and spreading the message of what he has been able to accomplish over the last three years. And while she’s occasionally been at odds with Biden on matters of immigration, she’s got Biden’s back.

“I think President Biden does the best when he's out with people and engaging with people. I know, I've seen it firsthand and the empathy that he has is so different than the opposition. He has a plan. He has ideas. He has a record to run on. That's so very different than Trump.”

Other Democrats said they need to see more from Biden before they follow him up the mountain — or over a cliff.

“Joe Biden had a bad night — Donald Trump has had a bad life,” quipped Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif. “The Republican convention meets this coming week. They ought to move to a different candidate, one who doesn't lie 30 times in one 90 minute debate.”

But Sherman has been cautious about his support of Biden, saying the president needs to do more to convince both him and the public that he can defeat Trump this fall.

“Looking at the first three-years-plus of the Biden administration, the Democratic voters wanted Joe Biden. But they made that decision before they saw, June 27 Joe Biden. And so, nobody wants to vote for — I mean, look, I love him, I respect him — but the June 27 image is not what the country wants to embrace.”

Sherman said the September debate between Biden and Trump hosted by ABC should not be the next time the Democratic nominee faces a live test. He’s urging the president to do a live, lengthy interview before the convention to increase confidence among voters.

Sherman told Spectrum News he has not spoken to the president, and that he is “undecided” in where he stands on whether or not Biden should remain the nominee. “I’m undecided in that I want more information — but even the people who say they've decided want more information too.”