President Biden is facing growing calls from media figures, editorial writers and pundits to drop out of the race following a debate performance that caused anxiety among Democrats.
Newspapers across the country, and even some of Trump’s most ardent supporters in the media, have pleaded with him to step down, fearing that former President Trump will be re-elected, but so far he has not conceded.
“Biden is not the man he was four years ago,” The New York Times editorial board wrote on Friday. “The president seemed a shadow of the great public servant he was Thursday night. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Trump accountable for his lies, mistakes and terrible plans. More than once, he struggled to finish sentences.”
The editorial board also called Biden’s candidacy a “reckless gamble” and said there were other Democrats “well prepared to offer a clear, compelling and vigorous alternative to President Trump’s reelection.”
The New York Times editorial board has called on President Biden to drop out of the race. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | Screenshot/NYT)
Media members shocked by Biden’s ‘terrible’ debate performance: ‘A total disaster’
Maureen Dowd of The New York Times Biden compared to Trump After the debate, he suggested it was selfish for the president to continue campaigning.
“He puts himself before country. He surrounds himself with opportunistic supporters,” Dowd said. “He has created a reality distortion field that tells us not to believe what we are clearly seeing. His arrogance is infuriating. He says he’s doing it for us, but in reality he’s doing it for himself.”
Dowd said Biden “succumbed to behavior reminiscent of Trump” and argued that he was not simply “out of sorts” with the president.
Many of those calling on Biden to drop out of the race have declared they are strong supporters and even “love” the president.
President Biden and former President Trump debated on Thursday night. (Getty Images)
One of Biden’s closest confidants, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, declared in a Friday op-ed that the president should not seek reelection, saying Biden’s debate performance “moved me to tears.”
With Times columnist Nicholas Kristof Paul Krugman They also urged Biden to step down. Like Friedman, they praised Biden’s presidency as a success for progressives but said he should not seek reelection. Liberal journalist Jonathan Alter added that Biden is “too old to run for office,” and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius repeated past calls for Biden to step down.
If the president, a known viewer of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” had been tuning in on Friday, he would have seen host Joe Scarborough say he loves Biden but that it’s time to talk about him dropping out of the race.
“If he was a CEO and performed like that, would any company in America, any Fortune 500 company in America, keep him as CEO?” Scarborough asked.
Later, frequent guest Donny Deutsch also sadly stated that Biden was no longer the “best choice.”
But on Monday’s episode of “Morning Joe,” Scarborough’s wife, host Mika Brzezinski, opened the show with a lengthy solo commentary saying the party should stay the course and support Biden. Scarborough was absent due to a planned vacation.
Clarence PageThe senior member of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board also acknowledged in a column published Sunday that “Biden needs to back out.”
“I expected to see Biden re-enact his State of the Union address, where he looked strong, confident, and adept at arguing and sparring with Republican hecklers,” he began. “Unfortunately, the Joe Biden who showed up on debate night was a different person, stuttering, stumbling, and sounding uncomfortably husky, undermining some of his biggest selling points, including his support for his health record and abortion rights.”
Media calls on Biden to drop out of 2024 race after ‘disastrous’ CNN debate performance: ‘It’s over now’
The editorial boards of the Chicago Tribune and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) also called on Biden to withdraw in editorials published on Friday. The Chicago Tribune represents the host city of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, and Atlanta is the site of Thursday night’s debate and the capital of one of the most crucial battleground states in the country.
“Biden should announce, if we haven’t made it clear already, that he will be a one-term president who is awake to his capabilities, faced with the sole claim of being president of the United States. He can do so with honor, but only “That’s the man,” Tribune editors wrote.
The AJC said the president “failed to outline the most basic aspects of his policy,” adding that “President Biden needs a shadow of retirement.”
Even some of the president’s biggest supporters, appearing on ABC’s “The View,” suggested after watching the debate that it might be time for the president to step down.
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“Maybe he needs to step down,” said liberal co-host Sunny Hostin.
“Maybe he needs to be honest with himself and with the American people,” she continued. “He can now step down with grace and dignity. He has a record of which he is proud.”
Co-hosts Sara Haines and Alyssa Farrah Griffin also said Biden should drop out of the race, with Griffin arguing that Biden would lose to Trump if he remained in the race.
Van Jones, a CNN political commentator and former adviser to President Obama, was nearly in tears during a presidential roundtable discussion after the debate.
“He’s a good man. He loves his country. He’s doing his best, but tonight he was faced with a test of restoring the trust of his country and his base, and he failed to do it. I think there are a lot of people who would now like to see him consider choosing a different path,” he said.
He added, “The convention is still a long way off. The party has time to consider other ways to move forward, if the president will allow it. But that is not what we wanted from Joe Biden, and it is personally painful for many people. What we saw tonight is not just panic, it is pain.”
President Biden speaks at a post-debate rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 28, 2024. (Alison Joyce/Getty Images)
Biden’s ‘disastrous’ debate performance sparks media mayhem, calls for him to withdraw from 2024 election
Comedian Bill Maher, who had called for Biden to step down long before the presidential debate, said it was clear the president would lose in November.
“He’s going to lose. I said that nine months ago. I’m going to say that again tonight. And now it seems all too clear,” Maher said Friday on HBO’s “Real Time.”
Liberal columnist Jill Filipovic has pressured First Lady Jill Biden to use her influence to get the president out of the race.
“Dear Joe, it’s time to go,” Middlebury College professor Jay Parini wrote in a CNN op-ed.
Parini praised Biden and his accomplishments, but also said, “You’re an old man now.”
“You looked old, pale and weak. You fumbled your way to the podium. Your speech was halting and often incoherent. Your jokes were off-base, poorly timed and out of context. You let Crazy Donald go unpunished and giggled at your own responses,” Parini continued.
Former President Trump will headline the Republican National Committee’s spring donor retreat on May 4, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Donald Trump 2024 Election Campaign)
Philadelphia Inquirer urges Trump to back down after debate performance
Mark Leibovich of The Atlantic He said in a column It’s time for Biden to go.
“Biden needs to step aside, for his own dignity, for the sake of his party, and for the future of our country. This debate debacle was a disaster. It needs to be a turning point,” he wrote.
Leibovich called on Biden’s family to make that “abundantly clear.”
The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol told ABC News on Sunday that the president shouldn’t be a candidate.
“We can’t forget what we saw, and it wasn’t just a bad debate. He’s old, he has health issues, I’ll say it, and I have sympathy for him,” Kristol said. “We don’t owe him another four years in the White House. He should step aside.”
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The New Yorker’s David Remnick also called Biden’s debate performance troubling, suggesting that Biden was endangering democracy by continuing to campaign.
“It would seem the more rational course and the act of patriotism to step aside and begin the admittedly complex process of searching for and nominating a stronger, more promising candidate. Refusing to do so, continuing to insist that Biden’s good days outweigh his bad, and ignoring the inevitability of time and aging, would not only jeopardize his legacy, it would jeopardize the election, and most importantly, the very issues and principles that Biden positioned as central to his presidency and essential to its future,” he wrote.
If Biden remains in office and is re-elected, he will be 86 at the end of his second term.
