The New York Times Editorial Board has called on President Joe Biden to leave the race for the White House after his performance at CNN’s presidential debate.
“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 board wrote in an opinion piece published on Friday.
According to the Board, “The greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election. As it stands, the president is engaged in a reckless gamble. There are Democratic leaders 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 board went on to say it would still support Biden as its “unequivocal pick” if the choice remains between him and former President Donald Trump.
The Biden campaign however, hit back at the editorial board’s critique. “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 told CNN.
The Times endorsed two Democratic presidential candidates in 2020: Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. The New York Times was the latest to critique Biden’s debate performance, which has set off alarm bells among top Democrats — leaving some to openly question whether Biden can stay atop of the Democratic ticket. “He seemed a little disoriented. He did get stronger as the debate went on. But by that time, I think the panic had set in,” longtime Democratic operative and CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod said.
Axelrod also gave voice to a conversation happening among many Democrats on Thursday night: “There are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.” On MSNBC, the cable news channel that’s seen as the home to the country’s progressive political wing, anchor Alex Wagner said Thursday immediately following the debate that there had “been a uniformly negative reaction to Biden’s performance tonight.”
“This was about revealing who Donald Trump was, but it was also Joe Biden battling a caricature of himself as an enfeebled person,” Wagner said of the debate. “And he did nothing to disabuse, I think, the country of the notion that he is very old and was lost frequently in that debate.”
A raspy and sometimes halting Biden tried repeatedly to confront Trump, as his Republican rival countered the president’s criticism by leaning into falsehoods about the economy, illegal immigration and his role in the January 6 2021 Capitol insurrection.
Biden’s uneven performance, particularly early in the debate, crystallised the concerns of many Americans that, at 81, he was too old to serve as president, according to the Associated Press.
Biden’s delivery from the beginning of the debate drew the most attention afterwards. Trump’s allies immediately declared victory, while prominent Democrats publicly questioned whether Biden could move forward.
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking on CNN afterwards, sought to defend the president’s performance while acknowledging the criticism. “There was a slow start, but there was a strong finish,” she said.
Asked about his performance in the debate, Biden told reporters early on Friday, that “I think we did well”, but said he had a “sore throat.” Pressed about Democratic concerns with his showing that he should consider stepping aside, Biden said, “No, it’s hard to debate a liar.”
Former President Barack Obama, on Friday, weighed in on Biden‘s dismal debate performance, in a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle. “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, at a campaign rally at Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, Biden forcefully tried to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing at the debate.
Acknowledging the criticism, the US president said, ”I don’t debate as well as I used to,” adding, “I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
Speaking for 18 minutes, Biden appeared far more animated than his showing the night before, and he excoriated Trump for his “lies” and campaign aimed at “revenge and retribution.”
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” Mr. Biden told the enthusiastic crowd. “I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I know. I know how to tell the truth. I know how to do this job,” he added.
Even as Democratic leaders pledged confidence in Biden on Friday, pundits and political strategists openly expressed doubt in his ability to see the election through, in some cases calling for him to make way for a new nominee, the New York Times reported.
Indeed, the only way for Democrats to replace Biden is for him to step aside and surrender the delegates pledged to him. At this point in the race, his replacement would be decided on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in August.
The debate buoyed the spirits of Trump and his allies, as did the Supreme Court ruling on Friday, that prosecutors had overstepped in their use of an obstruction charge against a member of mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump, whose own case could be affected by the ruling, called it “a big win” in a post online.
During the Thursday night debate, Trump argued that the president’s policies had left the U.S.-Mexico border wide open, allowing crime and drugs to flow into cities and converting every state into a border state.
“We are living right now in a rat’s nest,” Trump said. “They’re killing our people in New York, in California, in every state in the union because we don’t have borders anymore.” It was one of many statements by Mr. Trump that were either false, lacked context or were vague enough to be misleading.
Biden, meanwhile, did not define any broader strategy on an issue that has become one of his party’s most nagging political vulnerabilities. He also did not counter what many historians see as rhetoric about immigrants that could fuel violence.
The president’s most forceful defense of undocumented immigrants came more than an hour into the debate, when he suggested that they were a “reason why we had the most successful economy in the world.”
Ten minutes into the first topic of discussion — the economy — Trump argued that the only jobs Biden had “created are for illegal immigrants.” A few minutes later, on the issue of abortion, Biden appeared to try to make a point about how Trump pays attention to the murders of young women by immigrants, but not women killed by stringent abortion restrictions. But he mangled his delivery. Mr. Trump, in response, decried the “many young women murdered by the same people he allows to come across our border.”
Sunday Ehigiator
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