The most recent of these calls was the New York Times editorial board’s demand that Biden withdraw from the presidential race.
The editorial board said in an article on Friday that “the greatest public service Biden can perform now is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.”
“The president appeared on Thursday night as a shadow of his former great public servant,” she said. “Biden struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term, to respond to Trump’s provocations, to hold him accountable for his lies, failures, and more than once disastrous plans, and to get to the end of the sentence. Biden is not the man he was four years ago.”
Leading New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman also called on his “friend Biden to step aside.”
“Joe Biden is a good man and a good president, but he has no right to run for re-election,” Friedman said.
Former US President Barack Obama defended Biden in a social media post on Friday, saying: “Bad debate nights happen, but this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary people his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
During an election tour in North Carolina, on Friday, Biden appeared more active and coherent, and admitted his weak performance in the debate, which was widely criticized, saying: “I don’t walk easily as I used to, I don’t speak smoothly as I used to, and I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I know.” “I know how to tell the truth.”
The New York Times became the first major US newspaper to call on Biden to drop out of the race, but other influential publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Atlantic published opinion pieces by their top writers calling on Biden to step down.
In response to the New York Times’ call, Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN: “The last time Joe Biden lost the endorsement of the New York Times editorial board, it went very well for him.”
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