New York Times Editorial Board Calls for Biden to Drop Out in Shocking Op-Ed
CNN
The New York Times editorial board on Friday called on President Joe Biden to drop his reelection bid after a disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump on Thursday night.
While Trump uttered about 30 falsehoods during the 90-minute event, a raspy Biden often struggled to articulate his thoughts. In one especially trying moment, the president stumbled through a response before concluding, “We finally beat Medicare.”
In its editorial, the Times said Biden is right to say the future of American democracy hinges on this election. However, its editors wrote, Biden is not up to the task of winning it:
At Thursday’s debate, the president needed to convince the American public that he was equal to the formidable demands of the office he is seeking to hold for another term. Voters, however, cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago.
The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.
The editors went on to call Biden’s candidacy “a reckless gamble” and said that there are other “Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency.”
While the Times made clear that Biden would be its “unequivocal pick” in a matchup against Trump, it would be best if the president were to step aside and make way for another candidate:
Ending his candidacy would be against all of Mr. Biden’s personal and political instincts. He has picked himself up from tragedies and setbacks in the past and clearly believes he can do so again. Supporters of the president are already explaining away Thursday’s debate as one data point compared with three years of accomplishments. But the president’s performance cannot be written off as a bad night or blamed on a supposed cold, because it affirmed concerns that have been mounting for months or even years. Even when Mr. Biden tried to lay out his policy proposals, he stumbled. It cannot be outweighed by other public appearances because he has limited and carefully controlled his public appearances.
The editors noted that it was Biden’s debate terms that Trump agreed to, and yet the president still turned in a poor performance. They also slammed Trump for his “disqualifying” remarks in which he “lied brazenly and repeatedly.”
“The Republican Party, however, has been co-opted by Mr. Trump’s ambitions,” they said. “The burden rests on the Democratic Party to put the interests of the nation above the ambitions of a single man.”
They concluded:
It is the best chance to protect the soul of the nation — the cause that drew Mr. Biden to run for the presidency in 2019 — from the malign warping of Mr. Trump. And it is the best service that Mr. Biden can provide to a country that he has nobly served for so long.
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