New York Times calls on Joe Biden to step down

The New York Times has called on Joe Biden to stand down from the presidential race and relinquish the Democratic nomination to a “stronger candidate” who would have a better chance of beating Donald Trump.

In an article by its editorial board, the Times accused Mr Biden of a “reckless gamble” in continuing his reelection bid after his disastrous appearance on the debate stage with Trump on Thursday night.

Mr Biden repeatedly struggled to deliver his lines, made factual mistakes and froze in response to moderator questions during the debate.

“There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency,” the New York Times said.

“There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr Biden.”

It added that standing down would be against Mr Biden’s “personal and political instincts” but that Thursday’s debate “cannot be written off as a bad night”.

The decision of the newspaper to condemn Mr Biden’s candidacy is a major shift in the media landscape for the US president, four months before the election in November.

The article came after a number of Democrat lawmakers and strategists called on Mr Biden to reconsider his reelection campaign and stand down before the Democratic convention in August.

Such a move would allow delegates at the convention to vote freely on who should succeed him. Contenders could include Kamala Harris, the vice president, as well as Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom, the governors of Michigan and California.

The New York Times has generally been supportive of Mr Biden’s presidency, although its management has clashed with the White House over its reporting of the issue of the president’s age.

Mr Biden was said to be furious about the newspaper’s coverage of the Robert Hur report, which revealed he had struggled to remember the dates he served as vice president during an evidence session in October last year.

He has refused to give the newspaper a sit-down interview in the run-up to the election, a tradition that most other presidents, including Trump, have followed.

The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post – the other two broadsheet newspapers with significant influence in Washington – have both issued articles from their editorial boards calling for Mr Biden to think seriously about his candidacy but stopped short of asking him to stand down.

“It’s incumbent on this incumbent to determine, in conversation with family and aides, whether continuing to seek re-election is in the best interests of the country,” the Washington Post wrote.

The paper said “it would require a degree of patriotism and self-sacrifice” from Mr Biden to stand down that is “too often missing from modern politics”.

The Post editorial warned he could go down in history with the same kind of legacy as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice whose work for women’s rights was undermined by her refusal to resign during the Obama presidency. Her death under Trump allowed him to appoint a conservative justice in her place.

“Mr Trump lied repeatedly during Thursday’s debate, but he did so coherently and with ease. Mr Biden was no match on the split-screen,” the paper wrote.

However, it also sounded more hopeful notes, writing that “there is ample precedent for incumbents losing a first debate and going on to win re-election”.

The Economist, a free-market British newspaper with a significant readership in the US, has also said Mr Biden should leave the race immediately.

Speaking at a rally on Friday, the president said he would not step back from the race and insisted that while he knew he was “not a young man” and did not “debate as well as I used to,” he was still the best candidate to beat Trump in November.

Mr Biden is trailing Trump in all seven of the major swing states, and the pair are neck and neck in national polls.

The debate on Thursday was considered a major opportunity to spread his message to around 70 million voters, but fell flat after he was unable to perform as planned.