Biden has always styled himself as an underdog, and that shouldn't change now, Khanna said. Thursday night's debate was not Biden's best showing, the congressman said, but doesn't define him.

"Rocky wasn't the most eloquent, but he was a fighter, and his eloquence was his character. I think that's the line that we need to use: that Biden's eloquence is his character," Khanna told The Times.

"He needs to embrace the role of an underdog. He needs to embrace his role as having gotten knocked down in life and gotten back up," Khanna said. "He's not going to be a John F. Kennedy. He's not going to be an Obama. He's not going to be a Reagan. But he can be a Truman. He can be a Johnson. He can be a fighter."

Being out among Americans right now is essential, Khanna added, suggesting that Biden barnstorm through the Midwest and meet with blue-collar workers and small-business owners.

Biden has done very few sit-down interviews or news conferences since taking office. He skipped the traditional Super Bowl halftime interview this year. In his first three years in office, Biden held 33 news conferences — half as many as Obama and fewer than Trump's 52 over the same period, according to The American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara.

On Thursday night, the reviews of President Biden flowing in after the 90-minute were generally bad, with one accompanied by seven head-exploding emojis. Even allies have acknowledged he appeared off his A game.

It was "Bad night for Trump — but worse night for Biden," Christine Pelosi, a Democratic National Committee delegate and daughter of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said in a text message.

Biden "needs a course correct and a timely, long unscripted interview to show that this was a terrible debate — as Obama and Reagan both had with their first reelect debates — and not an ongoing condition," she said.

One surprising element about Biden's performance Thursday was how it differed from his energetic and forceful State of the Union Address in March. Biden was so strong that Trump and other Republicans suggested the president had been "jacked up" on drugs to perform so well.

But in the debate, Biden sounded hoarse and and at times struggled to complete sentences. Trump also spoke incoherently at times and, as fact-checkers pointed out, lied repeatedly. But Trump also spoke with more confidence, and the contrast in energy — Trump revved up, Biden halting — was startling to many viewers.

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