Joe Biden is incapable of assuring voters he can handle another presidential term, his team has ‘no plan’ on how to deal with his senile behavior, and he should simply ‘not be running for re-election,’ according to New York Times authors.
Anxieties from the liberal Times’ Editorial Board and opinion writers show how worried they are that ailing Biden may not be able to beat ‘bad man’ Donald Trump this year.
The back-to-back opinion pieces knifing the elderly president, 81, over the weekend comes after a Justice Department report ripped into his handling of classified documents and portrayed him as a forgetful old man.
The 388-page report by Special Counsel Robert Hur confirmed he would not be charged – but it said that was because a jury would probably conclude he had ‘diminished faculties’ and was a ‘well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’
Biden’s lack of enthusiasm on the campaign trail, coupled with his doddering public appearances and ‘crotchety grandpa’ attitude, are huge concerns during this ‘dark time’ in his presidential tenure, according to the left-leaning broadsheet paper.
‘He needs to do more to show the public that he is fully capable of holding office until age 86,’ the Times board stated on Sunday.
The back-to-back opinion pieces knifing the elderly president, 81, comes after a Justice Department report into his handling of classified documents was released
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On February 9, the New York Times‘ Editorial Board published a damning, honest opinion piece, titled: ‘The Challenges of an Aging President.’
The team at the newspaper concluded: ‘This is a dark moment for Mr. Biden’s presidency.
They said that Biden’s performance at his news conference on Thursday night was ‘intended to assure the public that his memory is fine and argue that Mr. Hur was out of line’ – but this is not what happened.
Instead, according to the opinion piece, ‘the president raised more questions about his cognitive sharpness and temperament, as he delivered emotional and snappish retorts in a moment when people were looking for steady, even and capable responses to fair questions about his fitness.’
The board wrote: ‘His assurances… didn’t work. He must do better — the stakes in this presidential election are too high for Mr. Biden to hope that he can skate through a campaign with the help of teleprompters and aides and somehow defeat as manifestly unfit an opponent as Donald Trump.’
They admitted Trump ‘has a very real chance of retaking the White House.’
The piece suggested Biden is being hidden by his advisors because of his senile age – and instead of being out campaigning with the people and building confidence, he is doing the complete opposite.
It read: ‘The combination of Mr. Biden’s age and his absence from the public stage has eroded the public’s confidence. He looks as if he is hiding, or worse, being hidden.
‘The details in Mr. Hur’s report will only heighten those concerns, which Mr. Trump’s campaign is already exploiting.’
This was not the only opinion piece highlighting Biden’s senescence published in the New York Times this weekend.
Maureen Dowd, 72, is a long-time journalist and opinion writer for the Times. She published a column on February 10 with the headline: ‘Mr. President, Ditch the Stealth About Health.’
She wrote for the NYT: ‘Stealth about health is no longer possible, and the sooner President Biden’s team stops being in denial about that, the better off Democrats will be.’
The liberal columnist argued Biden has put himself in bubble wrap – and that going on the defensive when Trump is on the offensive during a time when the ‘world is on fire’ will not work for the Democrats.
Dowd argued Jill Biden and his advisors have tried to come up with ways to ‘obscure signs of senescence’ but none of their tricks have worked.
As a result of trying not to come across as a ‘crotchety grandpa,’ he in fact has shown himself as a full-blown ‘crotchety grandpa.’
Dowd said that despite Biden running against a ‘bad man’ – Trump – is not ‘not enough’ and he needs to ‘acknowledge to himself that his moments of faltering are a big weakness.’
The NYT writer said: ‘Many Americans are quite concerned about the 81-year-old president’s crepuscular mien. It’s the elephant in the room — except that elephants never forget.
‘Donald Trump, 77, makes his own verbal slips and shows signs of aging, but he conveys more energy.
‘When the president rushed out Thursday night to show he was compos mentis, rebutting what special counsel Robert Hur said, he was peevish with the media and blamed his staff for mishandling classified documents.
‘Petulance is never a good look. Biden should have taken a breath.
‘Pushing back at the image of a crotchety grandpa, he came across like a crotchety grandpa. “I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing,” he barked.’
Dowd argued Biden’s team ‘clearly has no plan for how to deal with the president’s age except to shield him and hide him and browbeat reporters who point out that his mental state is a genuine issue.’
She sternly warned: ‘Democrats should grab their smelling salts for a long case of the vapors. It’s going to be a most virulent, violent year.’
The third, scathing opinion piece published by the New York Times this weekend concerning Biden came from 44-year-old political analyst Ross Douthat.
His damning piece was titled: ‘The Question Is Not If Biden Should Step Aside. It’s How.’
Douthat wrote in the Times: ‘Joe Biden should not be running for re-election.
‘The impression the president gives in public is not senility so much as extreme frailty, like a lightbulb that still burns so long as you keep it on a dimmer.’
He said if Biden drops out and anoints Vice President Kamala Harris ‘she’s even more likely to lose to Donald Trump.’
But, he says: ‘If he drops out and doesn’t endorse his own number two, he’d be opening himself to a narrative of identitarian betrayal — aging white president knifes first woman-of-color veep — and setting his party up for months of bloodletting and betrayal, a constant churn of personal and ideological drama.’
According to latest polls, Biden’s chance of being the Democratic nominee has plunged to just 60 percent- giving a boost to potential candidates Michelle Obama, Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris.
This comes as a new poll showed that Americans are deeply skeptical about Biden’s mental capacity to serve a second term as he begins in earnest to make his case for re-election.
According to a new NBC poll, a total of 76 percent of voters have either major or moderate concerns about Biden, 81, having the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term.
A stunning 62 percent of voters in the poll say they have ‘major concerns’ about Biden’s mental and physical health.
The poll reflects the mood on the campaign trail, as Biden’s aides are increasing the number of campaign events but also risking more embarrassing moments for the president.
This week, Biden’s staff struggled to explain why the president repeatedly referred to deceased European leaders as if they were still in power.
The poll reflects the mood on the campaign trail, as Biden’s aides are increasing the number of campaign events but also risking more embarrassing moments for the president.
This week, Biden’s staff struggled to explain why the president repeatedly referred to deceased European leaders as if they were still in power.
The poll of 1,000 registered voters was conducted January 26-30, prior to Biden’s confusion about speaking with two different world leaders who died before the events he recalled.
On Wednesday, Biden recalled a 2021 conversation with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl during a fundraiser event in New York City. Kohl died in 2017.
On Sunday, Biden spoked about a 2021 conversation with François Mitterrand, a French president who died in 1996.