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President Joe Biden has emphatically said in recent days that he’s not abandoning his reelection bid, a decision that continues to divide Democrats eager to stave off former President Donald Trump.
Biden’s poor debate performance against Trump has set off major alarm bells with many Democratic voters, lawmakers, and donors — a scenario that they didn’t envision in the lead-up to the party’s August convention in Chicago.
For more than a year, The New York Times has extensively covered issues tied to voter concerns about Biden’s age, often pointing to polling showing that a majority of the 81-year-old president’s 2020 supporters felt as though he was too old to seek reelection.
After last month’s debate, The Times’ editorial board, which operates separately from the newsroom, called on Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee.
And this week, the board once again urged Biden to leave the race, arguing that the president was seeking to “defy reality” by remaining the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer.
“For more than a year, voters have made it unquestionably clear in surveys and interviews that they harbor significant doubts about Mr. Biden’s physical and mental fitness for office,” the board wrote. “Mr. Biden has disregarded the concerns of those voters — his fellow citizens — and put the country at significant risk by continuing to insist that he is the best Democrat to defeat Mr. Trump.”
The board criticized Biden’s dismissal of poll numbers showing him trailing Trump in most national surveys and holding no major advantage in critical swing states, writing that the president has “adopted a favorite theme of the floundering politician” by doing so.
And the board also pleaded with Democrats — from grassroots organizers and top leaders within the party — to have heart-to-heart conversations with Biden about his candidacy.
“They need to tell him that he is embarrassing himself and endangering his legacy,” the board wrote. “He needs to hear, plain and clear, that he is no longer an effective spokesman for his own priorities.”
When Biden won in 2020, many Democrats assumed he would only serve for one term and would be a “bridge” to younger leaders within the party. But as Biden defended his reelection bid, he leaned into his age as an important part of his life experience.
The president in recent days has sought to squelch any idea that he’ll forgo his reelection bid. However, several House Democrats have asked him to step aside, and if there’s a noticeable slide in his swing-state numbers in the coming days, there will likely be more vocal pressure on the White House as lawmakers eye their political futures.
Business Insider has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.
