After relegating coverage of his disastrous debate performance to a small paragraph in its front-page coverage, The New York Times finally weighed in on Biden’s bad night, urging the president to drop out of the race for the White House.
The paper’s scathing op-ed noted that Biden appeared to be a “shadow” of his former self and that the argument that he was the best Democratic candidate to take on Trump was no longer valid.
The paper agreed with Biden’s view that another Trump presidency would be a disaster for the country and endanger the nation’s democracy.
They wrote glowingly about Biden’s administration, calling him an “admirable president.”
But then the Times, unable to ignore the president’s terrible performance, put it bluntly and said: “Mr. Biden cannot continue this race.”
This marks a change of direction for the “newspaper of record,” which came under fire Friday morning after its print edition failed to comment on Biden’s terrible debate performance.
Instead, the document focused on issues that were largely peripheral: Iran stepping up its nuclear work and an analysis of Julian Assange’s legal drama.
This was clearly at odds with other major newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, each of which reported on the debate in the print editions of their newspapers.
At the end of its morning paper, The New York Times simply instructed its readers to check out its coverage of the debate online.
This sparked controversy, with many pundits wondering whether the Times would have been so taciturn if Biden had performed better or if Trump had performed worse.
The opinion published on Friday afternoon by the newspaper’s editorial staff marked a change of heart for the liberal newspaper.
Although the editors said that the choice was between Trump and Biden, “the incumbent president would be the unequivocal choice of this board,” the meaning of the article was clear:
The New York Times is ready for Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
The liberal newspaper did not mince words when offering its verdict on Biden’s appearance during the debate, which took place in Atlanta.
The editorial board wrote:
‘The president emerged Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to respond to Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once he struggled to get to the end of a sentence.
