President Joe Biden delivered a steady performance at a high-stakes press conference Thursday but still fell short of assuring jittery Democrats concerned about his future, prolonging painful questions across the party.

But minutes after the press conference wrapped up, at least two more Democratic lawmakers called for Biden to step aside — a sign his problems are far from over.

“Today I ask President Biden to withdraw from the presidential campaign,” Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), wrote in a statement obtained by POLITICO. “The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course.” Just minutes before, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, also called on Biden to step aside in a post on X.

Even as Biden successfully fielded 50 minutes of questions on an array of dense issues, many Democrats privately feared his several verbal gaffes would be what stood out the most. That includes one in which he mistakenly referred to “Vice President Trump” instead of Kamala Harris.

“Unreal,” said one House Democrat watching the appearance, responding to the flub, who ultimately reviewed it as: “Mixed. Obviously much better second half.” Another Democrat, who was following Biden’s remarks from a plane Biden’s remarks from a plane, texted about the Trump moment: “Ouch.”

“Overall he sounded coherent but calling Z — President Putin and Harris — VP Trump overshadows the rest of his time,” that lawmaker added. Democrats were granted anonymity to speak candidly about their reactions to the press conference.

Still, it wasn’t as bad as some Democrats feared. Biden flexed his foreign policy chops — including his role in expanding NATO — and defended his record of legislative accomplishments. Those moments, as well as a jab at Trump’s golf game, drew positive reviews from Democrats watching.

“Holy shit — he’s on fire,” texted one aide as Biden lit into Trump’s record.

And asked about his ability to do the job, the president said there’s “no indication” he’s slowing down and said he has more work to do: “I want to finish it.”

“Looks and sounds 100x better than he did at debate,” one House Democrat said in a text, adding that Biden was “almost” as good as his last State of the Union appearance, which drew no complaints from his party.

“Talked too long. But if this had been the debate none of the last two weeks would’ve happened,” that member added.

The whole thing could put Democrats in an even more awkward position than before. Despite deep discontent with their nominee, the performance wasn’t bad enough to trigger party-wide movement toward Harris or others. While at least a half-dozen Democrats had prepared statements to come out against Biden if he had tanked in the press conference, it remained unclear, as of Thursday night, whether it had met their bar.

Many Democrats told POLITICO they didn’t catch the press conference in real time for various reasons, including pre-scheduled travel, fundraisers or other personal reasons. Both chambers of Congress had left D.C. earlier Thursday, and won’t return for more than a week.

Hours earlier, the president’s mix-up between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a NATO event also elicited groans in the party.

“He has no margin for error,” one House Democrat said in response. Another House Democrat, when told about the Zelenskyy-Putin mistake by a reporter, did not believe it.

“No he didn’t,” said the Democrat. “Christ.”

One senior Democratic aide summed up their reaction bluntly: “It’s time to suck it up and push the old man over the finish line.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed reporting.

A pair of House Democrats — Reps. Ed Case and Greg Stanton — became the latest lawmakers to call for President Joe Biden to drop his reelection bid.

“For the sake of American democracy, and to continue to make progress on our shared priorities, I believe it is time for the President to step aside as our nominee,” Stanton (D-Ariz.) said in a statement.

“I do not believe President Biden should continue his candidacy for re-election as President,” Case (D-Hawaii) said in his own statement.

The two lawmakers are the newest of more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers to push for Biden to step aside, with likely more to come. A Thursday closed-door meeting with the president’s aides left skeptical senators unmoved, and as POLITICO first reported, at least half a dozen other lawmakers are preparing to publicly break with Biden if his highly anticipated solo press conference Thursday night goes poorly.

Two other Democrats came close to calling for Biden to step off the ticket and raised more questions about his fitness for office.

Trump-district Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) said in a statement she doubted the president’s “judgment” about his health, fitness for office and own ability to govern.

“Americans deserve to feel their president is fit enough to do the job. The crisis of confidence in the President’s leadership needs to come to an end. The President should do what he knows is right for the country and put the national interest first,” she said in a statement.

And Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) said on WPRI his voters “have deep and unanswered doubts” about Biden’s ability to win the election and to serve another four years in office.

Top advisers to President Joe Biden met with Democratic senators on Thursday to try to reassure lawmakers nervous about his viability in November. It didn’t work.

Lawmaker calls for Biden to step aside have swelled against this week — with Reps. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) and Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) bringing the total number of Democrats to 12 and others poised to follow suit if the president stumbles again. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) became the first senator to demand Biden stand down on Wednesday night.

The most outspoken critics of the president continuing his reelection bid appeared unmoved by the session that included senior Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, as well as Biden campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon. Behind closed doors, the group of Democratic senators actively pushed back on assertions from the Biden campaign that the president was on the right track to win this November, according to a person briefed on the meeting.

After it concluded, Welch said the meeting didn’t change his mind.

“I have great respect for their team. It doesn’t change my point of view,” he told reporters.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who said publicly he feared a Democratic wipeout with Biden atop the ticket, called the session a “good discussion,” but said his concerns remained about the incumbent being a drag on other races.

In interviews with more than two dozen Democratic senators following the meeting at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, staunch Biden backers reiterated their support. But the wide swath of Democratic senators who have either remained mostly silent or expressed some reservations did not seem reassured following the meeting.

“Joe Biden really has to bring it to Donald Trump,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a brief interview. “I still need to see the data and analytics that show me the path to victory.”

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) echoed that sentiment: “He’s got to demonstrate that the debate was just a bad night. … There’s a clock running.”

Then there was a loud silence from other senators. Normally chatty senior Democrat conference members like Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), Jack Reed (R.I.) and Angus King (I-Maine) all declined to comment on the meeting, with several lawmakers indicating they agreed not to speak with the media. Several senators declined to say if anyone in the closed-door meeting had called for Biden to step aside.

“It was very clear that we were asked not to say anything,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

Among those who spoke during the meeting were Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who’s expressed concern about Biden’s viability, and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), one of his staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill.

“I certainly stood up hard for my friend, our president, Joe Biden,” Coons said.

At least three Democrats facing reelection this fall — Jon Tester (Mont.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Tim Kaine (Va.) — did not attend the session.

Prominent centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), who toyed with an independent presidential bid and formally left the Democratic Party earlier this year after announcing his retirement from the Senate, said he planned to speak with Biden over the weekend. He said the Biden aides gave no indication he would drop out, but answered lots of questions from senators.

Despite mounting concerns elsewhere, it’s clean Biden still has strong backers from some Democratic senators.

“In my view, President Biden is going to run for president and Biden is going to win,” said leading progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “And he’s going to win because the contrast between his policies and Donald Trump’s are very, very clear.”

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), a member of Democratic leadership, said Biden officials laid out an “aggressive plan.” And Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said of those Democrats nervous about Biden’s mental fitness for another term in office: “I think the president will answer those concerns” during his press conference following the NATO summit on Thursday afternoon.

Lawmakers will have fled Washington by then, out of town for a week-long recess as the Republican convention commences next week.

Democratic lawmakers are making contingency plans in case Joe Biden tanks his highly anticipated solo press conference later Thursday, with at least a half-dozen lawmakers preparing to go public against the president, according to six people familiar with discussions.

Three of those lawmakers’ offices have already drafted statements, according to two people who have been briefed on conversations.

The lawmakers are among a large faction of Democrats who have so far remained largely silent about Biden’s future despite major concerns about his ability to defeat former President Donald Trump. The people familiar with discussions declined to specify on record the members who were preparing statements against Biden or ready to do so.

“This is a moment that will make a difference,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), who is retiring from his Michigan swing seat this fall. He noted the unscripted press conference, occurring at the end of the three-day NATO gathering in D.C., will be Biden’s first chance after a shaky ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos to convince the public he can win. During that interview, Biden dismissed his unnerving debate performance two weeks ago as simply a “bad night.”

Among House Democrats, there is a pervasive sense of panic about Biden at the top of the ticket. But there is also a deep divide internally about how to handle the situation.

Many are privately skeptical that there’s any number of Democratic defections that would actually convince Biden to leave the ticket, calling it “delusional” thinking. Others insist that a large-enough groundswell could make a difference, pointing to party leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who could relay concerns to Biden himself. Pelosi and Jeffries huddled on the House floor for an extended period of time Thursday morning, according to one lawmaker who witnessed the exchange.

Regardless, all Democrats agree on one thing: The party is running out of time to come up with a strategy to help them defeat Trump and take back the House in November.

“[Biden’s NATO presser] is part of the bigger picture of whether he’s able to be unscripted and answer questions,” said Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Col.), who has not definitively backed Biden. “We’ll see how today goes, but it’s a small part of where we are.”

Others, even Biden backers, are doubtful that a good performance by the president will sway Democrats much at all. The damage has already been done, they argue.

“The main make-or-break is occurring right now and we will, asmembers of Congress, continue to analyze who’s the best person at the top of the ticket,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who’s supportive of the president.

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), who’s already called for Biden to step aside, was more blunt: “The cake is baked.”

“What if he has a great day and a bad day tomorrow? Do you really want a campaign where you have that uncertainty through the most tense moments?” Quigley said.

And Biden’s team has another problem on the Hill: A growing sense of frustration that his campaign team has not been responsive enough to lawmakers’ concerns. Several Democrats told POLITICO they are frustrated that campaign officials haven’t responded to members asking them to address concerns about Biden’s strategy.

“I’ve asked the campaign for a plan and they’ve just not been responsive,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), who has said he’s close to saying Biden should quit. “So I think they’ve sent their message to me.”

And Quigley said he hadn’t heard from the Biden campaign or the White House either, though he added: “I’m not the one they need to convince.”

Rep. Victoria Spartz is facing a misdemeanor charge over allegedly carrying a weapon in a terminal at Dulles International Airport in late June and will face arraignment on Sept. 20.

On June 28, Spartz (R-Ind.) allegedly brought a .380 caliber firearm in her carry-on that was found by TSA personnel. Last month, her office said the handgun was “accidentally” in her bag, she was “issued a citation” and then allowed to board her international flight.

The Indiana Republican could face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. She’ll be arraigned at the Loudoun General District Court in Virginia.

Spartz was first elected to the House in 2020 and won the GOP nomination for reelection in May, fending off a primary challenger. Last February, she announced that she’d retire at the end of her current term, but later reversed course. She has been in the spotlight amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the first-ever Ukrainian-born member of Congress.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.

House Republicans failed to pass their $7 billion funding bill for parts of the legislative branch on Thursday, a surprise misstep in what should have been an easy victory for GOP leaders.

The failure is an ominous sign for Republicans’ push to pass the rest of their fiscal 2025 spending bills on the floor before August recess, with seven bills — most of which are far more politically divisive — tentatively slated for floor action during the last two weeks of July.

The measure collapsed on the House floor in a 205-213 vote, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats to tank the legislation as well as several GOP absences. A longstanding and contentious freeze on a cost-of-living pay raise for members of Congress, in addition to concerns about higher spending, contributed to the GOP dissension.

Before the vote, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a GOP appropriator who voted against the bill, raised concerns on the floor about increased funding levels and the constitutionality of maintaining the pay freeze through appropriations bills. While House Republicans are broadly seeking cuts throughout their annual spending bills for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the Legislative Branch measure is one of a few that seeks a funding hike, proposing an overall 6 percent bump for the House, Capitol Police, Congressional Budget Office and more.

Senior Republican appropriators were shocked by the failed vote, with House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) calling it “inexplicable,” adding that he had not heard significant concerns from members.

“Well, I assumed it was going to pass,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), another senior appropriator.

Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), who oversees the Legislative Branch funding measure, said the bill was facing “a few different issues.”

“And so we went in — the last couple of days — we knew that it was going to be close,” he said. “There were some members that were expressing concerns. And there were a lot of members who weren’t here, as well.”

Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Debbie Lesko of Arizona, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Keith Self of Texas and Clyde all voted against the bill.

GOP leaders will now face their most ambitious fiscal 2025 task yet: attempting to pass seven appropriations bills during the last two weeks of July, several of which never made it across the floor last summer thanks to politically tough goals for funding cuts and policy provisions that fueled House Republican infighting.

House Republicans have so far managed to pass four of their spending bills on the floor for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, including measures that would fund the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Homeland Security, State and foreign aid programs.

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly identified Rep. Robert Aderholt’s state. He represents a district in Alabama.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday that he plans to eventually convene his leadership team and then they’ll “figure out the next step” on the crisis surrounding President Joe Biden.

Jeffries added he has no scheduled meetings with the president, though he had told Democrats in talks this week that he planned to relay their concerns to Biden directly. He also said it’s his goal to hear from every House Democrat — before leadership makes any decision on what to do next — but that it is “a process.”

The House Democratic leader has been under intense pressure to take a stand on Biden’s future at the top of the ticket as he’s met with multiple factions of his caucus. And more members have been publicly calling for Biden to step aside, with purple-district Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) becoming the latest Democrat to say Biden needs to drop out of the race Thursday morning.

Biden campaign and White House officials are set to meet with Democratic senators on Thursday afternoon to hear their concerns.

There is no scheduled meeting with House Democrats yet, with lawmakers set to leave for a weeklong recess Thursday afternoon.

The House on Thursday rejected a rare effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in “inherent contempt” after a handful of Republicans helped squash the resolution.

Democrats and a handful of Republicans defeated the measure on a 204-210 vote. It was forced by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and would have required the top Justice Department official to pay fines of $10,000 per day until he handed over audio of former special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden.

Four Republicans voted against the resolution, and unexpected GOP absences drove the vote count down further. Democrats were united in opposition.

Democrats had failed twice on Wednesday to pigeonhole the effort. Four Republicans voted with them on Wednesday, but the House minority party was ultimately foiled by absences.

But Republicans had been privately fuming over the effort behind the scenes for days. Some questioned why they were giving it political oxygen in a week dominated by Democrats’ ongoing existential political crisis over whether Biden should stay at the top of their ticket.

One GOP member, who had expected Speaker Mike Johnson to help kill Luna’s resolution, argued that Republicans should just “keep quiet” and leave Democrats to their “circular firing squad.”

Another GOP member, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, recounted complaining to Johnson recently that the speaker wasn’t doing enough to push back on the right flank of his conference. Others lamented that Luna’s resolution would just end up in court anyway, and still others argued that they didn’t support the effort but the likely ensuing backlash wasn’t worth opposing it.

To that last point, the political dynamic got more complicated for Republicans after former President Donald Trump publicly endorsed her effort. That put more pressure on GOP lawmakers to back it, rather than risk a high-profile break with their party’s nominee.

Johnson and other Republicans tried to talk Luna out of forcing a vote, but in the end, she stuck by her vow to bring it to the floor. In a bid to assuage her colleagues, Luna softened the measure’s language — no longer calling for the House sergeant at arms to take Garland into custody and instead levying fines.

Johnson told reporters this week that the resolution gave him “pause” from a constitutional perspective, but that he would support it if it came up.

Congress hasn’t used its inherent contempt powers since 1935. Republicans separately voted last month to hold Garland in contempt for refusing to hand over the audio, which Biden asserted executive privilege over. DOJ officials subsequently announced they would not pursue charges against Garland.

The Justice Department did hand over the transcript of the interview, but Republicans have argued that they need the audio so they can listen to details like Biden’s tone or pauses in his answers.

House Republicans have also sued to try to get the courts to force Garland to hand over the audio.

Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), a frontline Democrat from a critical swing state, became the 11th Democratic member of Congress and 10th from the House to call for President Joe Biden to stand down from his reelection bid on Thursday.

In a Thursday statement and social media post, Scholten said, “President Biden has served his country well, but for the sake of our democracy, he must pass the torch to a new candidate for the 2024 election.” In an interview with The Detroit News, she said she would respect Biden’s decision and vote for him if he ultimately continues in the race.

Scholten won her Grand Rapids-based seat in 2022 and joins frontline Reps. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) in calling for Biden to abandon his bid for a second term.

All eyes on Capitol Hill — let’s face it, throughout world capitals, too — will be trained on President Joe Biden on Thursday afternoon.

His press conference, landing amid the close of the NATO summit, also comes as Biden’s team tries to reassure wavering Hill Democrats he’s up for another term.

The hits kept coming Wednesday night. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) became the first Democrat from the upper chamber to call on Biden to stand aside, arguing “the latest data makes it clear that the political peril to Democrats is escalating.”

“You’re focusing on a single event because that’s the one that’s coming up,” Welch said Wednesday of the press conference before his Washington Post op-ed published. “There’ll be another event next week. You’ll focus on that. And what it suggests is that the question of aging capacity simply won’t go away.”

Then, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), one of the most moderate Democrats in Congress, went a step further and said he was unsure he could even vote for Biden. “I will not vote for someone if I don’t think they are physically or mentally equipped to lead this nation. And I do not know the answer to that question at this time,” Golden told Maine Public Radio. (Golden had already predicted his party would lose the White House this fall but added at the time “I’m OK with that.”)

And Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a statement late Wednesday after a report he might be open to swapping Biden atop the Democratic ticket. “As I have made clear repeatedly publicly and privately, I support President Biden and remain committed to ensuring Donald Trump is defeated in November,” the Senate leader said.

Speaker Mike Johnson, echoing the feelings of many in the GOP conference, was happy to highlight Democratic in-fighting as it enters its second week. “The Democrats are in total disarray,” he said Wednesday night on Fox News. “They don’t have a plan B but they know they have a serious problem.”

Maybe the only saving grace for Hill Democrats? They’ll be out of Washington by the time Biden’s press conference wraps — however it goes.

For your radar: Senate Democrats will gather for a special lunch with senior Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti — as well as Biden campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon — on Thursday afternoon at their campaign headquarters off the Hill.