- President Joe Biden had a disastrous debate night against Donald Trump on Thursday.
- The 81-year-old president coughed, stumbled over his words and did not complete some sentences.
- His performance has done little to convince voters that he is fit for office, wrote The New York Times Editorial Board.
After President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in Thursday night’s debate against former President Donald Trump, the New York Times Editorial Board declared it has seen enough: Biden must step aside.
The Times editorial board, which provides opinions on critical issues facing the country right now, published a column on Friday criticizing Biden’s performance and wrote that it did little to convince American voters that the 81-year-old president is fit for another term.
“The president appeared Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant,” the editorial board wrote. “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 frightening plans. More than once, he struggled to get to the end of a sentence.”
The board praised Biden’s accomplishments over the past three years, calling him an “admirable president” but concluded that “the greatest public service Mr. Biden can perform now is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.”
A Biden campaign spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Times editorial board, which typically leans left on some issues, had previously urged Biden to take voters’ concerns about age seriously.
And Thursday’s debate only cemented concerns that the editorial board says won’t be dispelled by more public appearances.
The New York Times newsroom, which operates independently of the editorial board, has been criticized by the Biden campaign and those on the left for its coverage of the president.
Biden’s team bristled at the paper’s coverage of the administration and the president, while a spokesperson for The Times criticized the White House for its lack of access to journalists.
“Mr. Biden has held far fewer press conferences and interviews with independent journalists than virtually all of his predecessors,” a Times spokesperson wrote in an April statement.
A Times spokesman declined to comment.
The editorial board acknowledged in the column that Trump’s debate performance should also be disqualifying, as the former president repeatedly misled and lied throughout the debate.
But the board wrote that Republicans are not interested in “deeper soul-searching” and that the party has been hijacked by Trump.
The editorial board also wrote that Trump poses a serious threat to democracy and that if the choice were up to him and Biden, the board’s “unequivocal choice” would be the sitting president.
“This is the danger Mr. Trump poses,” the board wrote. “But given this danger, the risks to the country, and Mr. Biden’s uneven abilities, the United States needs a stronger opponent for the presumptive Republican nominee.”
