New York Times doubles down on telling Biden to drop out: 'He is embarrassing himself'

The New York Times again called on President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 White House race and protect his legacy in a blistering editorial on Monday, saying he was "embarrassing himself."

"From the grass roots to the highest levels of the party, Democrats who want to defeat Mr. Trump in November should speak plainly to Mr. Biden," the editorial board wrote Monday. "They need to tell him that his defiance threatens to hand victory to Mr. Trump."

Political commentators, longtime media allies and even some fellow office-holding Democrats have urged Biden to step down from the nomination amid concerns about his age and mental acuity, which were exacerbated by his weak debate showing and subsequent media interviews. 

"They need to tell him that he is embarrassing himself and endangering his legacy," the board wrote. "He needs to hear, plain and clear, that he is no longer an effective spokesman for his own priorities."

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD CALLS FOR BIDEN TO DROP OUT: HIS CANDIDACY IS A 'RECKLESS GAMBLE'

The New York Times editorial board repeated its call for President Biden to withdraw from the race and protect his legacy. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo  |  Getty Images)

The left-leaning editorial board wrote that despite Biden's insistence that he is able to serve as both president and campaigner-in-chief, the stakes of this election are too high for Democrats to risk him staying in. 

"[Biden] does not seem to understand that he is now the problem — and that the best hope for Democrats to retain the White House is for him to step aside," the editorial board wrote. 

The day after last month's debate, the Times stunned the media landscape with its editorial imploring Biden to drop out of the race. It referred on Monday to former President Trump as a "grave threat to American democracy," and it hasn't endorsed a Republican in a general election for the White House since 1956.

Biden has responded to media criticism over his debate performance, saying that he had a "bad night" and "screwed up." However, he has categorically rejected calls for him to step down, telling radio host Earl Ingram in an interview last week that he was still confident he could beat former President Trump in November. 

"And, you know, we're going to win this election," Biden told Ingram. "We're going to just beat Donald Trump. And like we did in 2020, we're going to beat him again. But we need all of you to get this done. All of you."

The Times wrote that Biden appeared to be winning in his "staring contest with Democratic leaders" by his insistence that he can beat Trump.

BIDEN'S 'DISASTER' DEBATE PERFORMANCE SPARKS MEDIA MELTDOWN, CALLS FOR HIM TO WITHDRAW FROM 2024 RACE

President Biden speaks with ABC News on July 5, 2024. (Screenshot/ABC)

"The only way to persuade Mr. Biden to accept the need for new leadership is to demonstrate that the party is no longer following him," the board wrote. 

The editorial board acknowledged Biden's interview on Friday with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, but said that he generally "has largely avoided taking questions from voters or journalists — the kinds of interactions that reveal his limitations and caused him so much trouble on the debate stage."

"And when he has cast aside his teleprompter, most notably during a 22-minute interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday, he has continued to appear as a man in decline," the board wrote. 

Reached for comment, the White House referred Fox News Digital to Biden's phone interview on "Morning Joe" on Monday, where he waved off "big names" listed by host Mika Brzezinski who want him to leave the race. That included the New York Times, and the editorial is the latest broadside in the ongoing feud between the two camps.

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"I don't care what those big names think," Biden said. "They were wrong in 2020! They were wrong in 2022 about the red wave! They’re wrong in 2024! Come out with me, watch people react. You make a judgment!"

Biden's campaign also referred to the MSNBC interview and noted other high-profile names who remain supportive of Biden staying in the race, such as Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among many others.

It also included a statement from Biden-Harris 2024 co-chair Cedric Richmond, who took a dig at the Times by noting Biden did fine when the paper endorsed two other Democrats in the 2020 primary.

"The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board's endorsement it turned out pretty well for him," he said.