New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a longtime Biden ally, wrote: “I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime — precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.”
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof suggested Biden should withdraw, writing on X: “I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, throwing the choice of Democratic nominee to the convention. Someone like @gretchenwhitmer or @SherrodBrown or @SecRaimondo could still jump in and beat Trump.”
Carry 46 rounds concealed? (comfortably)
Alyssa Farah Griffin of “The View” commented, “If Biden truly believes Democracy is on the line, he should step aside and let another Democrat step in to take on Trump. Put the country first.”
Vox correspondent Eric Levitz wrote: “Joe Biden should save his legacy by ending his candidacy.”
Financial Times associate editor Edward Luce expressed his panic on X, writing: “This is a disaster. Democrats need to end their self-imposed censorship on Biden and fix this. There’s two months until the convention. Other countries hold general elections in less time than that.”
CNN commentator Van Jones called for Biden to step aside, saying, “I love that guy as a good man. He loves his country. He’s doing the best that he can. But he had a test to meet tonight, to restore confidence of the country and of the base, and he failed to do that. And I think there’s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now. We’re still far from our convention and there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that. But that was not what we needed from Joe Biden. And it’s personally painful for a lot of people. It’s not just panic. It’s pain of what we saw tonight.”
