San Antonio's Julián Castro, Austin's Congressman Lloyd Doggett both call on Biden to drop out

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee for president. Former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro joined him.

With his statement Tuesday, Doggett became the first congressional Democrat to publicly ask the president to drop out after last week's dismal debate performance against former President Donald Trump.

"President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump," Doggett wrote. "I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies."

Late Tuesday, Castro, who served in the Obama administration as secretary of Housing and Urban Development and ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020, announced he was also calling for the president to drop out.

"President Biden should fulfill his promise to be a bridge to the next generation of leadership — and allow a stronger Democratic candidate to prevent a disastrous second Trump term," Castro said in several posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Time is running out."

Castro also spoke to MSNBC on Tuesday. "I actually don't see a path now for President Biden to stay in this race in the long term. When you have now a member of Congress, probably more, coming out against him; you have the New York Times editorial board."

Biden's performance in last week's debate shocked Democrats, opening up the prospect of replacing the sitting president ahead of the November election.

Meanwhile, current San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg took to social media to support "President Biden's positive vision for America's future."

Norma Martinez contributed to this report.