Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., said Sunday that President Joe Biden’s first television interview since his disastrous debate performance fell short of alleviating deep concerns about his age and mental acuity, and that the president has more work to do to convince voters he is fit to run for and win reelection.

“Voters do have questions,” Murphy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

He added: “Personally, I love Joe Biden, and I don’t know that the interview on Friday night did enough to answer those questions. This week is going to be absolutely critical. I think the president needs to do more.”

Murphy said he would urge Biden to “do a town hall, do a press conference — show the country he is still the old Joe Biden.”

He avoided directly answering whether Biden should step aside, saying: “I know there are a lot of voters out there that need to be convinced that Thursday night’s debate performance was a bad night.”

The carefully calibrated comments from Murphy were some of the first public alarm bells from the ranks of Senate Democrats, who have stayed mostly silent since the debate over a week ago but who are increasingly concerned about Biden’s ability to serve as the party’s nominee. It came at a time when a handful of members of the House have already publicly called on the president to step aside.

Murphy’s comments reflected where many Senate Democrats are landing as they head back to Washington for a critical week: They want to give Biden a little more room to prove himself, or exit the race on his own terms, before making any explicit call for him to do so. But they are also aware that there may be no way, at this point, to prove to voters that he is not too old for the task of defeating former President Donald Trump.

Murphy said he thought Biden could still defeat Trump. But he added, “the president needs to answer those questions that voters have.”