Journalist Curtis Wilkie, who has covered eight presidential elections and White House administrations, called on Biden to withdraw from the race in an op-ed for Mississippi Today, saying it was “painful” to watch the president he’s known for decades.
“President Biden should never have sought a second term,” Wilkie wrote.
Wilkie joined a long list of media outlets, reporters and Democrats who called on Biden to withdraw following his shaky debate performance.
“Given that I have known Joe Biden longer than any reporter who has covered him, I have a rare perspective on the debate that has dominated American politics. I have seen over the years how the relentless demands of the presidency have strained other occupants of the White House. And like Mr. Biden, I am burdened with the infirmities of old age that are taking their toll on both of us and beginning to diminish our physical and cognitive abilities,” Wilkie wrote.
Biden resists growing pressure to resign
President Joe Biden watches as he participates in and debates the first presidential candidates for the 2024 election with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia, June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Wilkie recounted his experiences with Biden, dating back to 1971 when he was a local reporter in Delaware and Biden was a New Castle County Councilman.
The 83-year-old veteran journalist spoke of his own anxiety about his own aging moment and compared his personal misfortunes to those of the president.
“It’s been 17 years since I met him. I never had the opportunity to call him ‘President.’ To me, he will always be Joe. I will be 84 this fall and Mr. Biden will be 82. I began to worry about both of us a few years ago,” he wrote.
“He gets names wrong or doesn’t remember them at all. He seems placid at times. His enthusiasm seems to have waned,” Wilkie wrote. “When Biden infamously strode onto the debate set last month, he walked with an old man’s shuffling half-step gait.”
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The New York Times editorial board has called on President Biden to drop out of the race. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images), (Screenshot/NYT)
He said watching the president on television had become “painful.”
“His Democratic Party faces its worst nightmare: a landslide victory for Trump and his MAGA supporters in November. And instead of leaving a strong personal legacy, Biden may be remembered in the history of these tumultuous times as a self-serving man, weakened by age, who clung to office for too long,” Wilkie concluded.
The New York Times editorial board, along with other newspapers and prominent opinion columnists, called on the president not to seek reelection just weeks after his abysmal performance in the debate.
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On Wednesday, numerous Democrats, including California Sen. Adam Schiff, called on Trump to step down, citing concerns about his election victory.
