President Joe Biden will sit for his first interview since his disastrous debate performance, but it may be too late for the Democrat to salvage his candidacy, even among friends.

Biden will give an extended interview to ABC's George Stephanopoulos this week, the network announced Tuesday. Some clips will air Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET on World News Tonight, and the extended interview will air Sunday morning on This Week.

The interview marks a critical opportunity for Biden to both address last week's debate against former President Donald Trump and mend the damage that erupted into a post-debate crisis for the Democrat. While Biden has made several public appearances since Thursday's debate, he has read from prepared remarks at those events.

"Is it too late to save his campaign? It may well be," crisis communications consultant James Haggerty told Newsweek. "Here's the problem: The American people feel they are being lied to in a desperate attempt to cling to power."

"President Biden's job in this interview is not to convince people he's young and vigorous—that ship has sailed—but that he isn't lying to them about his aging, his cognitive ability, and his ability to handle the rigors of the presidency," Haggerty said.

But even if Biden does well in the interview, political strategist Jay Townsend told Newsweek that "nobody who watched that debate is ever going to forget what they saw."

Biden struggled to complete sentences during the debate and often looked lost while speaking in a hoarse voice. The 81-year-old's performance urgently raised questions about his age and ability to serve a second term.

In the aftermath of the televised event, at least two Democrats have called on Biden to pull out of the race, several of his allies have cast doubt over the party's ticket and polls have delivered devastating news to his campaign.

Representative Lloyd Doggett became the first Democratic member of Congress to publicly call for Biden's withdrawal from the race on Tuesday. In his statement, the Texas Democrat invoked former President Lyndon Johnson, who famously announced that he would not seek reelection just six months before the 1968 election.

"I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw," Doggett said. "President Biden should do the same."

Former Congressman Tim Ryan also called for Biden to step aside in a Newsweek op-ed published Tuesday.

"Witnessing Joe Biden struggle was heartbreaking. And we must forge a new path forward," Ryan wrote before calling for Vice President Kamala Harris to replace Biden as the party's nominee.

Even Biden's longtime allies are raising questions about his candidacy. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC Tuesday that it's a "legitimate question" to ask if Biden's debate gaffes were "an episode" or "a condition," while Representative James Clyburn, who was critical of Biden's 2020 win, told the network he'd support Harris as the nominee should Biden step aside.

But it's not only turmoil within the Democratic Party that Biden has to worry about. Polls show that he's losing voters at a rate that he may be unable to recover.

A leaked internal poll showed that Biden suffered a catastrophic drop in support that would put previously noncompetitive states Virginia, New Hampshire and New Mexico into play.

The polling memo, published by Puck News on Tuesday, said Biden faced "the largest single-week drop" in nearly three years. The survey, conducted 72 hours after the debate, also showed that 40 percent of Biden 2020 voters said the president should step aside. That number was only 25 percent the month prior.

But more importantly, the data showed that Biden is no longer the strongest candidate to run against Trump. Harris, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg all "polled ahead of Biden in every battleground state." Whitmer received additional good news, blowing away Trump in her home state.

Haggerty said he often advises that individuals in a communication crisis start with "what's right." For Biden, that means "what's right for the American people."

"Too often, politicians and their advisers think 'How little can we say to get out of this mess' rather than 'What can we say to win?'" Haggerty said. "In this case, maybe President Biden should see winning as preserving his reputation, his legacy, and American democracy, rather than his nomination."