U.S. President Joe Biden pauses during the CNN presidential debate at CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. President Biden and Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, face off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election campaign.
Justin Sullivan | Afp | Getty Images
The New York Times editorial board on Friday called on President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race against Donald Trump, citing the Democrat’s poor performance in the debate the night before.
“The president appeared Thursday night like a shadow of a great public servant,” the Times editorial said. “He found it difficult to explain what he would achieve in a second term. He found it difficult to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He has struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his frightening plans. More than once he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.
“Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of confronting and defeating this threat of tyranny. “His argument rests largely on the fact that he beat Mr. Trump in 2020,” it said. “That is no longer a sufficient justification for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year.”
The stunning editorial came a day after Biden performed poorly in his first debate against Trump in the 2024 White House race.
“It should be remembered that Mr. Biden challenged Mr. Trump to this verbal duel,” the editorial said. “He set the rules and insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address long-standing public concerns about his mental capacity as quickly as possible.”
“The truth that Mr. Biden must now confront is that he has failed his own test.”
The editorial comes as a number of Democrats and fundraisers consider urging Biden to step aside in the contest.
The Times editorial board has been the leading editorial voice of liberal newspapers in the United States for decades.
But in recent years, the newspaper’s news section has been criticized by some liberals for its coverage of Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, and Biden.
Read more about CNBC’s political coverage
Biden, for his part, showed no signs that he is considering abandoning the race on Friday.
While Biden nodded to his problematic performance in the debate, he escalated his criticism of Trump in a speech in North Carolina and in social media posts on X.
“I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden said at a campaign rally on Friday. “But I know what I know: I know how to tell the truth. I know what’s right and what’s wrong and I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
“I give you my word as Biden, I wouldn’t run again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul that I could do this job because, frankly, there’s too much at stake.”
Replacing the Democratic nominee for president at this point in the election cycle would not only be politically risky for the party, it would also be very difficult. The only likely way to replace Biden would be for him to voluntarily drop out of the race.
In response to the Times editorial, a Biden campaign aide told NBC: “The last time Joe Biden lost the support of the New York Times editorial board, things were going pretty well for him.”
Source link
2024-06-29 00:02:57
www.cnbc.com