Boston Globe editorial board calls on Biden to end his campaign

The Boston Globe urged President Joe Biden to bow out of the presidential race Wednesday, citing a lack of sufficient explanation for Biden’s “historically bad” debate performance last week.

“In the days since last week’s presidential debate, President Biden’s team has said little that adequately explains why his performance was historically bad, beyond that he had a cold,” the editorial board wrote in a column published almost a week after Biden stuttered and stumbled his way through his first debate of the 2024 election. “What we mostly heard instead was the closing of ranks around a beleaguered and wounded candidate.”

The Globe is the latest in a flurry of news outlets — including the New York Times — to use its editorial pages to urge Biden to step aside. While the Biden campaign, the White House and several top Democratic elected officials have publicly pitched Biden as the Democratic party’s best hope for defeating former President Donald Trump — and warned of the myriad risks of trying to replace him at the top of the ticket — the greater risk, the board wrote, is “lies in allowing Biden to continue as the party’s standard-bearer.”

“The nation’s confidence has been shaken,” the board wrote, and the question still remaining goes beyond whether or not the president can win to whether or not he can rule.

Democrats have overwhelmingly offered public support for Biden’s campaign while panning his debate performance. But in recent days some have shifted their tone , criticizing the campaign for dismissing voter concerns about Biden’s candidacy and calling for Biden to do more to tamp down those worries. In the past 24 hours, some Democrats have suggested that if Biden drops out, viable alternatives like Kamala Harris could swoop in. The board said as much Wednesday:

“A bevy of potential candidates — from Vice President Kamala Harris to the governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and California, to name only a partial list — are waiting in the wings to take on Trump. All that they need is for Biden to graciously bow out of the race and free his delegates to cast their votes for someone else at the Democratic National Convention,” the board wrote.

Top Democrats now need to step up to persuade Biden to call it quits, the board wrote, naming former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer , House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries , former House speaker Nancy Pelosi; and South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn , “the man who did more than anyone to make Biden the nominee in 2020.”

Biden’s legacy is on the line, the board claims. “If he leaves the race now, his party will hail him as a hero. If he stays in and loses, it will be a disaster for the country.”

A Biden campaign spokesperson did not return a request for comment.