By Katherine Donlevy | New York Post
Yet another major newspaper urged President Biden to step down after his disastrous debate against Trump — saying “Retirement is now necessary.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a front-page editorial Saturday asking Biden, 81, to pass the torch to another, more competent candidate, following the lead of The New York Times.
“The unfortunate truth is that Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century,” the AJC Editorial Board wrote.
Georgia’s largest newspaper painted Biden’s performance in Thursday’s debate against convicted felon Donald Trump as “excruciating,” with the sitting president failing to convey any visions for a second term or his accomplishments from his nearly four years at the helm.
The editorial board didn’t even touch on the incumbent’s series of gaffes — which included saying his son Beau, who died from cancer in the US, “died in Iraq” and that he “beat Medicare.”
The president has shown clear signs of the early stages of decline, the board wrote.
The AJC lamented the precedent set by George Washington, who bowed out after two terms at age 64: “Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome,” Washington wrote.
“The shade of retirement is now necessary for President Biden,” says the AJC Editorial Board.
While the left-leaning newspaper admitted that it would “require a massive and unprecedented string of legal and regulatory actions” to have Biden bow out and name a successor, it emphasized that the Democrats have a plethora of viable candidates to choose from.
Besides, the action is urgent — The AJC has zero confidence the octogenarian has any chance of defeating Trump come November.
“Biden deserves a better exit from public life than the one he endured when he shuffled off the stage Thursday night,” the AJC wrote.
“If he displays the courage and dignity that have defined his political career, he might follow in the footsteps of the nation’s first president and welcome his retirement, secure in the knowledge that he again served his country with honor.”
The AJC’s admitted loss of faith in Biden comes just one day after The New York Times called on the sitting president to bow out.
While insisting that Biden, 81, had been an “admirable president,” the liberal editorial board concluded the incumbent appeared on the debate stage as “the shadow of a great public servant” and would be engaging in a “reckless gamble” by continuing his candidacy.
The Post Editorial Board was the first major newspaper to publicly air concerns about Biden’s continued candidacy after his abysmal debate Thursday against Trump.
“Biden can’t survive this,” the board wrote less than two hours after the debate concluded.
“It is political malpractice to let him continue to run for re-election. It is national malpractice to let him continue.”