The New York Times editorial board is calling on President Biden to "leave the race" following his disastrous debate performance.
"President Biden has repeatedly and rightfully described the stakes in this November’s presidential election as nothing less than the future of American democracy," the editorial board began Friday.
"Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of taking on this threat of tyranny and defeating it. His argument rests largely on the fact that he beat Mr. Trump in 2020. That is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year."
The Times offered a blunt assessment as to how voters perceived the president, declaring "Biden is not the man he was four years ago."
"The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. 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 chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence," the editorial board told readers. "Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election."
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The editorial board went on to call Biden's candidacy a "reckless gamble" and that there are other Democrats "better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency."
"There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden. It’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes," the editorial board continued.
While the Times board clarified Biden would be its "unequivocal pick" if he and Trump were on the ballot in November, it insisted his debate performance "cannot be written off as a bad night or blamed on a supposed cold, because it affirmed concerns that have been mounting for months or even years."
"It should be remembered that Mr. Biden challenged Mr. Trump to this verbal duel. He set the rules, and he insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible. The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test," the editorial board wrote.
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The editorial board urged Democrats to "find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader," adding that Biden's inner circle who have "sheltered him from unscripted appearances in public" should "recognize the damage to Mr. Biden’s standing and the unlikelihood that he can repair it."
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," it continued. "It is the best chance to protect the soul of the nation — the cause that drew Mr. Biden to run for the presidency in 2019 — from the malign warping of Mr. Trump. And it is the best service that Mr. Biden can provide to a country that he has nobly served for so long.
The Times editorial board joins a growing chorus of the liberal media calling for Biden to step aside following his first debate against former President Trump this election cycle.
