While Biden’s lackluster performance in last Thursday’s debate raised the level of concern among Democrats in the House and Senate, the news media increasingly showed calls for his swift resignation. Editorial boards and editors at major media outlets such as the New York Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website, and the New Yorker magazine joined prominent television commentators and journalists in other newspapers to call for and pressure the president to step down. There is a way for another candidate to replace him.
The Washington Post editorial board stopped short of calling for Biden to drop out of the race, but it encouraged the president to “self-reflect” at a time when the Biden campaign rejected calls to step down because it would give Trump a better path. Win the upcoming November elections.
The New York Times editorial board was the first to publish an article of its kind: “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race.” The newspaper opined that during the last debate Biden appeared a “shadow” of a man who served the public, insisting that “there are better Democratic leaders to present clear and concrete alternatives.”
In a similar vein, some articles in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and The New Yorker argued that “Biden may not be” the best candidate to defeat Trump. The New Yorker suggested Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Senator Raphael Warnock, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Maryland Governor Wes Moore as possible alternatives to Biden.
For his part, NBC News anchor Joe Scarborough asked, referring to Biden, “if this man we’ve known and loved for so long is qualified to run for president of the United States.”
But this general media trend did not resonate with several prominent Democrats, including former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, who expressed their support for Biden after the debate. Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi, a former speaker of the House, said Sunday evening: “It’s not about performance during the debate, but about performance during the presidency,” Agence France-Presse reported.
Pelosi added: “On one side of the screen is integrity, on the other side is dishonesty,” echoing statements made by several Democratic figures who sought to shift attention from Biden’s performance to Trump’s “barrage of lies.” During the discussion.
According to a CBS News poll two days after the debate, three-quarters of voters expressed their belief that Biden “shouldn’t run for president,” including “46% of Democrats.”
