NY Times Editorial Board Urges Biden To Quit Race - Did Trump Administer Premature Kill Shot?

Thursday night's presidential debate mortally wounded President Biden's political career, and now the New York Times has hammered a significant nail in the coffin -- publishing an editorial bluntly declaring that "the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election." 

With this development, Biden's departure from November ballots is taking on an air of inevitability. At the same time, Team Trump is reckoning with what may have been a strategic error --  enabling a premature kill shot that could leave Trump facing a worse matchup. 

Repeatedly emphasizing President Trump's supposed "enormous...danger" to the country, the Times editorial board wrote that Biden is "engaged in a reckless gamble" with America's future, saying "it’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes." 

You don't have to respect the Times to appreciate the enormity of a cornerstone liberal media institution declaring an incumbent Democratic president mentally incapable of running for re-election. This move by a "newspaper of record" will embolden other leftist entities and elected officials  to do the same, and the momentum is likely to only grow stronger as the snowball effect gathers force. 

Here are some more pointed highlights: 

• "Voters cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago."

• "The president’s performance cannot be written off as a bad night or blamed on a supposed cold, because it affirmed concerns that have been mounting for months or even years."

• "[Biden] insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible. The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test."

• "Democrats who have deferred to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader....The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can’t continue his race."

Whistling past his boss's political graveyard, Biden-Harris co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN, "The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him” -- a reference to the Times backing Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic primary.  

At this point, the post-debate glee at Trump campaign headquarters is likely infused with some angst. Presidential races are all about the matchups, and Trump couldn't have asked for a more favorable opponent than Biden. That's now in jeopardy. 

In our debate preview, we warned that frontrunner Trump may have made a major strategic error in agreeing to an extraordinarily early date for the first debate:   

Trump may come to regret agreeing to a debate that's far earlier in the presidential election calendar than normal -- indeed, before either party has even had its nominating convention. If tonight's debate puts Biden's mental decline under the national spotlight, the Democratic Party...may scramble to persuade Biden to leave the race with dignity and replace him with someone else.

Now, as that exact scenario is playing out, the Trump campaign is feebly trying to steer Democrats away from benching Biden and subbing in the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Responding to the Times editorial, the Trump campaign told NBC News that Biden is the "incumbent president, he is the Democrat nominee, he has also said he won’t drop out, it’s too late to change that.”

Don't bet on it.