Maureen Dowd calls for Biden to leave race after shaky debate: He ‘looked ghostly’

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called on President Biden to abandon his reelection campaign following his poor debate showing on Thursday night, warning that deciding to run was ill-advised and made him no better than his adversary, former President Trump.

“He’s being selfish. He’s putting himself ahead of the country. He’s surrounded by opportunistic enablers. He has created a reality distortion field where we’re told not to believe what we’ve plainly seen. His hubris is infuriating. He says he’s doing this for us, but he’s really doing it for himself,” she started the column.

“I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about the other president.”

In a column titled “The Ghastly vs. the Ghostly,” Dowd joined several of her New York Times columnist colleagues on Saturday morning to call on the president to step aside. On Friday, the Times editorial board also called on Biden to drop out of the race.

“He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans,” the board said. “More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.”

Dowd also pointed to his debate struggles, but suggested that they indicated a much larger issue for his would-be second term.

“He didn’t just have an off night,” she wrote. “Biden looked ghostly, with that trepidatious gait; he couldn’t remember his rehearsed lines or numbers.”

“He has age-related issues, and those go in only one direction,” she continued.

Two years ago, Dowd encouraged the president to step aside, invoking Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s untimely death as a cautionary tale. 

“The timing of your exit can determine your place in the history books,” she wrote at the time. 

While the Biden camp clings on to his reelection campaign, Dowd encouraged his staff and the first lady to abandon the race in order to preserve his legacy.

“It is because Biden is beloved, and because he has real accomplishments as president, that he needs to stop this nerve-racking, maddening tightrope walk to the Oval,” she concluded.