The Washington Post is conceding President Joe Biden should not have tried to run for re-election.
In an editorial on Tuesday, the Post noted Biden’s Monday night speech would have been given as an acceptance of his party’s nomination “if he had his way.”
“But the mood at the convention would have been grim — a divided party in the United Center — and a diminished Mr. Biden, at the head of a dispirited party, would likely have lost in November,” the editorial suggested as it said the 46th president made a “profoundly selfless decision” to end his re-election bid.
“In retrospect, Mr. Biden should not have sought reelection. The June 27 debate was worse than just a bad night, as the president maintained afterward,” the Post wrote.
It added, “The 81-year-old had shown signs of slipping for a long time, but his inner circle worked to conceal his decline. He and the country would have been better off if Mr. Biden had kept his implied promise from the 2020 campaign to be a ‘transitional’ figure, perhaps by bowing out after the Democrats’ surprisingly good showing in the 2022 midterm elections.”
The editorial comes a month after Biden announced he would end his re-election bid amid growing pressure for him to drop out of the race due to concerns about his age and health.
It also featured a link to a controversial June report published by The Wall Street Journal that stated he has been showing “signs of slipping.”
That article sparked swift backlash from White House officials who insisted it was not accurate.
However, weeks later, during the presidential debate, Biden’s disastrous performance alarmed many Democrats and set in motion the pressure that forced him to drop out.
