- President Joe Biden suffered a brutal defeat in a debate against President Donald Trump on Thursday.
- The 81-year-old president coughed, stuttered and couldn’t finish some sentences.
- The New York Times editorial board wrote that Trump’s performance had done little to convince voters that he was fit to be president.
After President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in Thursday night’s debate with former President Donald Trump, the New York Times editorial board declared that enough was enough and Biden should step aside.
The Times’ editorial board, which opines on key issues currently facing the United States, published a column on Friday criticizing Biden’s performance, writing that the 81-year-old president has done little to convince American voters that he is fit for another term.
“The president emerged Thursday night as a shadow of the great public servant he is,” the editorial board wrote. “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 committee praised Biden’s work over the past three years and called him a “good president,” but concluded that “the most important public act Mr. Biden can now do is to announce that he will not run for reelection.”
A Biden campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Times’ editorial board, which generally leans left on issues, has previously urged Biden to take voters’ concerns about age seriously.
And Thursday’s debate further cemented concerns that the editorial board argued would not be allayed by further public comments.
The New York Times newsroom, which operates independently of the editorial board, has come under criticism from the Biden campaign and some on the left for its coverage of the president.
Biden’s team has been outraged by the paper’s coverage of his administration and the president, while a Times spokesman has criticized the White House for giving reporters insufficient access.
“Biden has granted far fewer press conferences and in-person interviews with independent journalists than virtually all of his predecessors,” a Times spokesman said in an April statement.
A Times spokesman declined to comment.
In their column, the editorial board acknowledged that former President Trump’s debate performance also merited disqualification because he repeatedly misled and lied throughout the debate.
But the committee wrote that Republicans were not interested in “deeper soul-searching” and that the party had been hijacked by Trump.
The editorial board also wrote that Trump poses a serious threat to democracy and that if faced with a choice between him and Biden, their “clear choice” would be the incumbent president.
“The danger posed by Trump is that great,” the committee wrote, “but given that danger, the danger to the nation, and the variability of Biden’s capabilities, the United States needs a stronger challenge to the presumptive Republican nominee.”
