The Boston Globe editorial board has called on President Biden to halt his campaign rally following his poor performance in the debate and a volatile few days for Democrats.
“Since last week’s presidential debate, President Biden’s team has made few statements adequately explaining why his performance was historically poor, other than to say he had a cold.” The Globe editorial board wrote:“Instead, what we heard was a rallying around an embattled and hurting candidate.”
The editorial board acknowledged that replacing Biden would be a “risky and complicated process” as the party questions who else could rally supporters and ultimately beat former President Trump at the polls this fall.
The Boston Globe editorial board joined a growing list of media outlets calling for the president to step down. The New York Times said Biden would be better off giving someone else a chance. The New Yorker called Biden “endangering the nation” by continuing to campaign. The Economist, the Chicago Tribune and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have also explicitly called on Biden to stop campaigning.
Panic has already set in, and the party is now considering its options, a list that is rumored to include Vice President Harris and several Democratic governors.
The Globe’s press release said they were waiting for an opportunity to take the lead and challenge Trump, but they were waiting for Biden to “make a clean break from the race and free up his delegates.”
“For the sake of the country, his party, and his legacy, Biden must do this — and soon,” the outlet wrote.
His announcement will likely spark a short-term campaign for a new face, which the Globe acknowledged will be disruptive but “very exciting.”
“Democrats need something more than fear of Trump to energize their membership,” the committee argued.
The committee said the biggest obstacle was Biden himself.
The White House insisted on Wednesday that the president has no plans to withdraw from the race, despite repeated calls for him to do so.
The Globe called on key Democratic leaders, including both former presidents and current lawmakers, to convince the president that he can exit the race as a hero.
As of Wednesday afternoon, only two House Democrats — Reps. Lloyd Doggett (Texas) and Raul Grijalva (Arizona) — had publicly called for the president to resign.
“For years during the Trump administration, Democrats have vigorously criticized Republican members who refused to say publicly that they had privately said that Mr. Trump was unfit to be president,” the committee wrote. “It is understandable that Democrats are hesitant to do the same now against a respected president of their own party.”
“In part because dealing with age-related decline is not the same as being a dishonest and incompetent president, but because they fear that questions about Biden’s fitness as a nominee will ultimately lead to questions about his fitness to be president – which will only strengthen Trump’s position,” the Globe wrote.
