Backlash after NYT editorial board says Biden 'embarrassing' self and 'endangering' legacy
As President Joe Biden makes it abundantly clear to the United States he will remain the Democratic nominee who will keep Donald Trump out of office, The New York Times Editorial Board doubled down on its call for him to drop out of the race — and pleaded with Democrats Monday to "tell him that he is embarrassing himself and endangering his legacy."
Biden's fumbling debate performance in Atlanta led The Times and other outlets to call for Biden to drop out of the race. The editorial board wrote June 28: "To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race."
And on Monday, the editorial board begged Democrats to reconsider their support for Biden.
"From the grass roots to the highest levels of the party, Democrats who want to defeat Mr. Trump in November should speak plainly to Mr. Biden," the editorial board said. "They need to tell him that his defiance threatens to hand victory to Mr. Trump. They need to tell him that he is embarrassing himself and endangering his legacy. He needs to hear, plain and clear, that he is no longer an effective spokesman for his own priorities."
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The board said the party needs a candidate who can "stand up" to Trump and offer an alternative vision. Additionally, Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia reportedly said Sunday that the president has "trouble putting two sentences together," the board pointed out in backing up its call. Beyer's characterization comes after special counsel Robert Hur gave a similar description of Biden this year as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The board argued the stakes are too high not to make a change, even as it acknowledged his "impressive record." However, past performance, the board argued, is "no guarantee of future results."
"The question confronting voters is not whether Mr. Biden has been an effective president, but whether he can beat Mr. Trump in November and govern effectively thereafter," the board said.
On the Republican side of things, the board called Trump "manifestly unfit to serve as president" and said he also ought to drop out, "not the least because of his own cognitive deficiencies and incessant lying." Dubbing Trump the "worst president in modern American history," the editorial board warned of an even more unrestrained Trump, including the weaponization of the Justice Department and a further assault on women's reproductive rights.
"His belligerent, erratic, go-it-alone approach to foreign policy will undermine the nation’s interests and its security, encouraging Vladimir Putin and other authoritarians around the globe," the board said.
The internet pushed back against the piece, with some calling it "too late" to make a change and others siding with Biden that he had "one bad debate."
"No, this ridiculous talk of replacing him and disenfranchising PRIMARY VOTERS is the freaking problem," wrote @TSoulrebel671 on X.
"You guys looking forward to being a target of Trump’s retribution? Cos it looks like that’s what you want," @dj_ewi wrote to the Times.
"This is ridiculous and it’s too late to change without disenfranchising voters," wrote @BillLiley. "We are not voting for a personality like the people of a cult. We are voting for an administration, good people who value the rights of all people protecting democracy. This is not a normal election!
"Biden has one bad debate and some of you want to see the death certificate," said @MayberryDo94345. "Trump tells lies and makes word salad every day where or your calls for him to step aside."