The New York Times. Several Democratic representatives, most anonymously but some even “on the record.” A CNN commentator. The polls. The list is long and the number of people calling for Joe Biden to resign from his candidacy for a second term as President of the United States is growing. Now, The Economist, the prestigious English weekly magazine with a strong editorial focus on North America, has joined in, doing so through a striking cover.
On the cover of its print edition available on July 6th, there is an illustration of a walker used by elderly people with mobility difficulties, featuring the shield of the United States presidency. The headline is damning: “No way to run a country.”
“The Economist” is a publication with over 180 years of history, neoliberal, globalist, and distinctly centrist. In 2020, it was one of the media outlets that supported Joe Biden’s presidential candidacy in an editorial, to the detriment of Donald Trump.
Tough week for Joe Biden
Since the moment Joe Biden left the studio in Atlanta where CNN held the debate against Donald Trump last Thursday, a crisis has erupted within the Democratic Party, with increasing voices calling for seeking an alternative in the presidential race.
That same Thursday night, one of the first to speak up was Van Jones, a social activist, former official in Barack Obama's government, and commentator on CNN, who asked Joe Biden to give the party the freedom to make changes. The next day, the harsh editorial of the New York Times appeared requesting that the president step aside.
In recent days, it was reported that 25 Democratic representatives will ask Biden not to continue in the presidential race, and even Lloyd Doggett from Texas did so publicly.
For this Friday, July 5th, the broadcast of the interview with Joe Biden by ABC News is expected, the first one-on-one interview with a journalist since the debate with Trump. Any new setback or doubt could be decisive for the US president. However, the interview will not be live, as it will be recorded on Friday morning.
Why does The Economist ask Biden to lower his candidacy?
In addition to the cover, in the “Leaders” section, “The Economist” wrote an extensive editorial titled “Why Biden must withdraw”.
“The presidential debate was awful for Joe Biden, but the cover-up has been worse. It was agony to watch a befuddled old man struggling to recall words and facts. His inability to land an argument against a weak opponent was dispiriting. But the operation by his campaign to deny what tens of millions of Americans saw with their own eyes is more toxic than either, because its dishonesty provokes contempt.” This is how the editorial column begins.
Then, just like The New York Times, it emphasizes that “Mr Biden deserves to be remembered for his accomplishments and his decency rather than his decline.”
They also point out that “Democrats argue, rightly, that Mr Trump is unfit to be president. But the debate and its aftermath have proved Mr Biden unfit, too.”
The editorial note mentions the option of the Democratic Party candidacy being assumed by Vice President Kamala Harris: “We believe that they would have a good chance of winning—a better one than Mr Biden, even if the candidate was Kamala Harris, his relatively unpopular vice-president. They would be fit to govern... America’s renewal needs to start now. There could be no better way than by choosing a new candidate to defeat Mr Trump.”