It’s not often that you find the New York Times pushing back against a Democratic politician, let alone a President, but it appears as though even the ultraliberal paper can’t really get behind Joe Biden.
Biden, who appeared to arrive at the White House with a noticeable amount of reticence, has been largely ineffective as Commander in Chief, failing to act on even the most basic policy or agenda points out there.
This, in turn, has sent his approval ratings into the abyss, and it has one of the left’s most consistently friendly newspapers turning their back on him.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens on Tuesday implored President Biden to not seek reelection in 2024 and announce his intentions as soon as possible so potential Democratic contenders could begin making preparations to replace him.
In a piece headlined, “Biden Should Not Run Again — and He Should Say He Won’t,” Stephens, a conservative and strong critic of Donald Trump, argued that Biden’s age, as well as his seemingly “uneven” cognitive state, needed to be candidly discussed because it wasn’t healthy for him, his office, the Democratic Party, or the country to remain in limbo about what to do if he decides not to run.
Stephens also argued it would be “liberating” for Biden’s presidency if he announced he wouldn’t run, and that it would energize a currently “listless” Democratic Party.
The column was simply brutal.
“Is it a good idea for Joe Biden to run for reelection in 2024? And, if he runs again and wins, would it be good for the United States to have a president who is 86 — the age Biden would be at the end of a second term?” he wrote. “I put these questions bluntly because they need to be discussed candidly, not just whispered constantly.”
Stephens noted it was “fair game” for reporters to question former President Ronald Reagan’s age in the 1980s after he took office at the age of 69 and won reelection in his 70s, but that it had somehow become “horrible manners” to raise similar concerns about Biden, who turned 79 last month.
“It won’t do. From some of his public appearances, Biden seems … uneven. Often cogent, but sometimes alarmingly incoherent,” he wrote. “What’s the reason? I have no idea. Do his appearances (including the good ones) inspire strong confidence that the president can go the distance in his current term, to say nothing of the next? No.”
It was only a matter of days ago that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki adamantly declared that Biden would be running for reelection in 2024 – an announcement that many in the media suggested came at a peculiar time for the embattled President.
