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2024 election live updates: Bernie Sanders calls on Dems 'to stop the bickering'

Sanders expressed his support for Biden in a New York Times guest essay.

President Joe Biden is facing a critical point in his reelection bid as Democratic calls for him to exit the 2024 race continue to mount despite his efforts to shut them down.

A poor debate performance against Donald Trump reignited questions about Biden's age and fitness to carry out his campaign and serve another four years. Biden has defiantly insisted he is staying the course, telling lawmakers this week he is not going anywhere.

Biden held his first news conference since the debate Thursday evening -- taking multiple questions about his political future.


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Some Congressional Black Caucus members back Biden

Several Congressional Black Caucus members expressed their support for the president as the Democratic nominee following their weekly meeting Wednesday.

"I’m going to work very hard for him," Rep. Maxine Waters. a California Democrat, told ABC News. "I think he’s kept all his promises and I am very very supportive."

Waters and Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, emphasized their prior endorsements of the president’s reelection bid and support Biden's decision to stay in the race.

"I do not think he should step aside," Green said. "And I think the president has said he is not stepping aside, so I think that counts too doesn’t it."

Rep. Cori Bush D-Miss., however, did not give a full-throated endorsement but emphasized she wants to beat Trump in November.

When ask if Biden can defeat the former president, Bush told ABC News, "that is a question for Joe Biden."

"I can’t speak to that. It’s up to the president," she added.

-ABC News' Arthur Jones II and Rachel Scott


Jeffries plans to relay Democrats concerns directly to Biden

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has told colleagues in private meetings that he plans to relay concerns about President Biden's campaign -- voiced by House Democrats -- personally to the president, multiple people familiar with his comments told. ABC News.

Jeffries has been huddling with Democrats from across the ideological spectrum this week to hear their worries about the presidential election and their own down-ballot races following Biden’s poor debate performance and his interview with ABC News.

-ABC News' Ben Siegel


Biden to hold one-on-one interview with NBC's Lester Holt

President Joe Biden will hold a one-on-one interview with NBC News' Lester Holt Monday, the network announced.

This will mark the second TV interview Biden has held since last month's presidential debate.

Holt will interview Biden earlier in the day while he's in Austin, Texas, and the full interview will air at 9 p.m. ET, the network announced.


Republican presses top officials on Biden's mental fitness

In back-to-back House Financial Services Committee hearings with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, both regular, annual hearings on their agency's policies, Republican Mike Lawler of New York redirected from questions about inflation and tariffs on Russia to ask each official about their personal interactions with the president.

Yellen said she wouldn't describe the content of her meetings with the president or say when she last met with him because it was "private," but she called Biden "extremely effective."

"The president is extremely effective in the meetings that I've been in with him, that includes many international meetings that are multi hour, like his meetings with President Xi [Jinping of China]," she said.

"Madam secretary, have there been any discussions among Cabinet secretaries about invoking the 25th Amendment?" Lawler asked.

"No," Yellen said resolutely. The 25th Amendment states that the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet can together remove power from the president if he or she is incapacitated.

Powell, asked by Lawler if he’s "noticed any mental or cognitive decline” in meetings with the president, said “no.”

But Powell noted that he’d only interacted with the president twice in the last two years -- once for a meeting and once to shake his hand at a state dinner, which Powell said was normal for presidents and Federal Reserve chairs, given the independence of the agency.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett