- President Joe Biden’s debate performance was almost universally criticized.
- Media and commentators called Biden’s performance “disastrous” and “sad.”
- Here’s a rundown of the media’s reaction to Biden’s terrible debate performance.
President Joe Biden’s historically terrible performance in Thursday night’s debate was so bad that American pundits are seriously debating whether he could, should or even needs to be replaced.
The US media offered frank assessments, highlighting Biden’s mismanagement with front-page headlines and scathing opinion pieces.
Here’s a rundown of reactions to Thursday night’s CNN debate.
The New York Times
As journalist Brian Stelter noted at X, there seems to be a consensus in the New York Times opinion section about Biden’s performance.
Editorial writers wrote that Biden was too old, that it was an “unusually bad night” and that he was “terribly spoken.”
The piece that is likely to hit Biden the hardest is an opinion piece by his friend, columnist Thomas L. Friedman, which said, “President Biden is a good man and a good president. He should drop out of the race.”
In his article, Friedman said he has been friends with Biden since his visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan after 9/11.
“I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in my hotel room in Lisbon and cried,” he wrote, saying the debate showed Biden was “unfit” to run for reelection.
New York Post
A front-page report in the New York Post called the performance “simply sad.”
The article continued: “The president mumbled, stumbled and froze during his disastrous debate with Trump.”
An article by the Washington Post editorial board called the performance “disgraceful” and went so far as to say that “millions witnessed the end of his presidency on live television.”
The Washington Post
The Washington Post’s front page headline read, “Biden Struggles in Tense Debate.”
The analysis said the president’s voice was “weak and raspy” and that Biden appeared to be losing focus.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post editorial board called the debate “an agonizing 90 minutes,” saying Biden struggled to speak with authority and that his presentation style was “weak.”
Perhaps more generously than other media, the paper described the president as having “a fine moment.”
Fox News
“It will be hard for the president to recover from this performance,” Fox News’ Mark Penn wrote in an op-ed titled “Joe Biden’s Debate Gamble Backfires.”
Fox News reporter Liz Peek also called Biden’s performance a “stunning disaster,” saying it shocked the nation.
She wrote: “Indeed, it is hard to imagine anyone who watched the first 2024 presidential debate voting to re-elect Joe Biden.”
CNN
In a story about the debate’s key points, CNN, which hosted the event, said “Biden’s age problem just got worse.”
“If Joe Biden loses the election in November, history will record that it took just 10 minutes to destroy the presidency,” CNN senior political reporter Stephen Collinson wrote.
Headlines called his performance “disastrous” and put his reelection “in jeopardy.”
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal’s front page headline read, “Biden and Trump at odds in debate over economy, border, abortion.”
The headline of a story by The Wall Street Journal’s senior political reporter Molly Ball was “Biden’s Disastrous Soiree Changes the Tide of Election.”
“While arguments can be made in favor of the incumbent president and his record, it is undeniable that Biden is far from making a convincing case,” Ball wrote in the letter.
In an opinion piece, columnist Peggy Noonan called it a “total disaster” for Biden and “the worst night ever for a sitting president.”
Financial Times
An opinion piece by Financial Times columnist Ed Roos was headlined “It’s Not Too Late for Joe Biden to Go.”
It began with a shocking sentence: “The best thing that can be said about Joe Biden’s stumbling debate performance is that it took place in June.”
Commentator
Prominent political commentators have also called on Biden to withdraw his candidacy.
“Joe Biden should withdraw,” journalist and pollster Nate Silver wrote in a blog post.
He said the debate was worse than he could have imagined, adding, “It’s time for Biden to consider what’s best for his party, what’s best for the country and what’s best for his legacy, and that is not running for president until he’s 86 years old.”
American blogger Noah Smith also gave a pessimistic assessment of the debate performance, writing: “I cannot emphasize enough how bad Joe Biden was in the first presidential debate.”
He argued that Trump is now the clear front-runner for the presidential election and that “it’s time to think seriously about what a second term for Trump would mean.”
Podcaster Joe Klein didn’t mince words when summarizing Biden’s debate performance.
“It was worse than tragic. It was sad and humiliating,” he wrote. “Biden looked like a hospice patient who got lost on his way to the bathroom.”
