The New York Times editorial board is urging President Biden to step aside and make way for a new Democratic challenger to former president Donald Trump in the aftermath of Biden’s debate disaster.
“President Biden has repeatedly and rightfully described the stakes in this November’s presidential election as nothing less than the future of American democracy,” the editorial board wrote in an essay published on Friday evening.
“Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of taking on this threat of tyranny and defeating it. His argument rests largely on the fact that he beat Mr. Trump in 2020. That is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year,” it adds.
The editorial came one day after Biden struggled to form coherent sentences during the first presidential debate, showing signs of his advanced age and sparking immediate panic among many Democratic pundits and voters.
Biden, meanwhile, tried to play down his poor debate showing at a rally in North Carolina on Friday. “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden said, as his supporters cheered.
“I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. I know, like millions of Americans, when you get knocked down, you get back up,” Biden added.
But the Times editorial board wasn’t buying it, saying 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 editorial board wrote.
It adds: “Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.”
While the editorial board acknowledged Biden would still be its “unequivocal pick” when presented with a Trump-Biden match-up, the board argued that Biden staying in the race would represent a “reckless gamble” as there are other Democrats “better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency.”
“There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden. It’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes,” the editorial board added.
Democrats must now “find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader,” the board writes, adding that Biden’s allies who have worked to shelter him from unscripted appearances in public should “recognize the damage to Mr. Biden’s standing and the unlikelihood that he can repair it.”
Despite immediate panic from CNN and MSNBC commentators and Democratic operatives following the debate, many Democrats have since come to Biden’s defense, including former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Representative Jim Clyburn.
The Biden campaign, meanwhile, sought to brush off the editorial.
“The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement it turned out pretty well for him,” Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said in a response, referring to the paper’s decision to endorse Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar in the 2020 Democratic primary, before Biden ultimately won the nomination.