After TV duel: “New York Times” calls on Biden to give up candidacy

After his weak performance in the first TV debate before the presidential election, the influential newspaper “New York Times” called on US President Joe Biden in its editorial to withdraw his candidacy. In order to serve the country, the 81-year-old must leave the race for another term, wrote the so-called Editorial Board, a group of opinion journalists that works separately from the editorial staff, on Friday.

It goes on to say that Biden is “the shadow of a great public servant.” The debate between the president and his challenger Donald Trump showed that Biden “failed his own test.” The editorial board includes several renowned opinion journalists, and the committee is intended to represent the values ​​of the “New York Times.”

Biden has been an admirable president, the journalists wrote in the opinion piece. “Under his leadership, the nation has flourished and begun to face a number of long-term challenges.” The wounds opened by his Republican predecessor Trump “have also begun to heal.” The greatest service Biden could now provide “would be to announce that he will not run in the election,” it continued.

Biden – at 81, the oldest president in US history – spoke with a hoarse voice during the TV debate on CNN on Thursday evening and repeatedly got tangled up in his formulations. He also left sentences unfinished and began to stutter. The 78-year-old Trump seemed much more energetic and focused.

A CNN poll showed that 67 percent of viewers saw Trump as the winner of the duel. The outcome of the debate caused concern among US Democrats. Biden himself dismissed doubts about his suitability for another term. “I don’t walk as casually as I used to, I don’t speak as fluently as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know how to tell the truth,” he said at a campaign event in the state of North Carolina.