New York Times Editorial Board calls on Biden to withdraw

The New York Times Editorial Board, known for its support of Democrats in the US, has called on Biden to withdraw from the race. 

According to the report by Serbestiyet.com, the statement is as follows:

"President Biden has repeatedly and rightly said that this November's presidential election is as important as any in the future of American democracy.

Donald Trump has proven himself to be a serious danger to democracy. Mr. Trump is an erratic and self-interested figure who is unworthy of the public trust. He has systematically sought to undermine the integrity of elections. His supporters have publicized a 2025 agenda that would give him the power to carry out his most extreme promises and threats. He has promised that if he returns to office, he will be a different kind of president, unconstrained by the established checks on power in the American political system.

Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of dealing with and defeating this threat of tyranny. His argument rests largely on the fact that he defeated Mr. Trump in 2020. But that is no longer a sufficient justification for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year.

In Thursday's debate, the President needed to convince the American public that he could meet the demanding requirements of the office he seeks to hold for another term. But voters cannot be expected to ignore what was plainly visible: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago.

The President appeared on Thursday night as a shadow of a great public servant. 

He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.

Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds Mr. Trump inflicted have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can perform now is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.

As it stands, the President is making a reckless gamble. There are other, better-equipped Democratic leaders who could offer a clear, compelling and energetic alternative to a second Trump presidency. There is no reason for the party to risk the country’s stability and security by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s shortcomings and Mr. Biden’s. It is too big a bet to hope that Americans will ignore or overlook what they are seeing with their own eyes: Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity.

If the race results in a choice between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, the incumbent president would be this editorial board’s unequivocal choice. That is how great a danger Mr. Trump poses. But given the risks the country faces and Mr. Biden’s diminished abilities, the United States needs a stronger opponent against the presumptive Republican nominee. Calling for a new Democratic nominee this late in the campaign is not a decision to be taken lightly, but it reflects the scale and seriousness of Mr. Trump’s challenge to the values and institutions of this country and Mr. Biden’s inadequacy to confront him.

Ending his candidacy would go against all of Mr. Biden’s personal and political instincts. He has recovered from tragedies and setbacks in the past and believes he can do so again. The President’s supporters are already explaining away the debate on Thursday as a single data point compared to three years of achievements. But the President’s performance cannot be dismissed as a bad night or attributed to a supposed cold, because it confirmed concerns that have been building for months, even years. Mr. Biden stumbled even when he was trying to lay out his policy proposals. This cannot be outweighed by his other public appearances, because he has limited and carefully controlled his public appearances.

It should not be forgotten that Mr. Biden challenged Mr. Trump to this verbal duel. He set the rules and insisted on a date months earlier than previous general election debates. He understood that he needed to address long-standing public concerns about his mental acuity, and he needed to do so as soon as possible.

The reality Mr. Biden must now face is that he failed his own test.

In polls and interviews, voters say they are looking for new voices against Mr. Trump. The consolation for Mr. Biden and his supporters is that there is still time to rally behind a different candidate. While Americans are accustomed to presidential campaigns that last for many years, in many democracies, campaigns are organized in a matter of months.

It is a tragedy that Republicans have not engaged in a deeper soul-searching after Thursday’s debate. Mr. Trump’s own performance should be seen as disqualifying. He lied brazenly and repeatedly about his own actions, his record as president and his opponent. He announced plans that would harm the American economy, undermine civil liberties and erode America’s relationships with other nations. He refused to promise that he would accept defeat, and instead returned to the kind of rhetoric that incited the attack on the Capitol on January 6.

But the Republican Party has been captured by Mr. Trump’s ambitions. It falls to the Democratic Party to put the interests of the nation above the ambitions of a single man.

Democrats who have bowed to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak the truth to the party’s leader. His confidants and aides, who have encouraged the President’s candidacy and shielded him from public view, must acknowledge that Mr. Biden’s reputation is damaged and that there is no prospect of repairing it.

Mr. Biden answered an urgent question on Thursday night. It was not the answer he and his supporters were expecting. But if the risk of a second Trump term is as great as he says it is — and we agree with him that the danger is immense — then his commitment to this country leaves him and his party with only one choice.

The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal honestly with the American public: to acknowledge that Mr. Biden cannot continue to run and to create a process to select someone more capable to take his place to defeat Mr. Trump in November.

This is the best chance to protect the soul of the nation from the malicious distortions of Mr. Trump, which is the reason Mr. Biden was driven to run for president in 2019. And it is the best service Mr. Biden can provide to the country he has long served so nobly."