(CTN News) – The New York Times editorial board encouraged President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 campaign following his terrible debate performance in Atlanta on Thursday night.
“The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can’t continue his race, and create a process to select someone more capable to stand in his place to defeat Mr. Trump in November,” the journal’s editorial board stated.
The opinion article noted that stopping his campaign would “be against all of Joe Biden’s personal and political instincts” and emphasized that Biden personally challenged former President Donald Trump to a debate.
“The truth Joe Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test,” the members stated.
In a statement released Friday, the Joe Biden campaign brushed off the editorial board’s decision.
“The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him,” said campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond, a former White House staffer and Louisiana congressman.
The paper’s editorial board supported Biden in the 2020 general election but had previously endorsed Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the Democratic primaries.
At the time, the board expressed concern over Biden’s age, stating that Biden, then 77, should “pass the torch to a new generation of political leaders.”
In response to the editorial board’s decision, the Trump team stated that Biden is the “incumbent president, he is the Democrat nominee, he has also said he won’t drop out, it’s too late to change that.”
Biden has not indicated that he intends to stand out, but he can withdraw before being formally nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
The editorial board’s commentary comes as Democrats have expressed anxiety over the president’s debate performance Thursday night, which was marked by a scratchy voice and rhetorical blunders such as tripping over his words and appearing to lose his thread of thought.
In a Friday speech, Biden defended his ability to serve with renewed energy after a lackluster debate the night prior.
“I know I’m not a young man,” Biden told fans in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday afternoon. “I don’t walk as well as I used to. I don’t talk as fluently as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but one thing I do know is how to tell the truth.”
Joe Biden, 81, is the oldest president in American history. Former President Donald Trump’s opponent is the second-oldest person to ever serve as president.