THE New York Times is just the first US newspaper to urge the incumbent Democratic Party president Joe Biden to quit the 2024 presidential election race, following his political collapse during a debate against former president Donald Trump – who himself has had to face a host of legal actions, with more to come!
Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, met on Thursday night at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, without a live audience.
On Friday, NYT’s editorial board called on Biden, 81, to drop out of the race. They said Democrats need to find a better candidate to replace Biden.
The appeal came after observers at the presidential debate noticed Biden appeared frail and confused, struggling to finish his sentences and mixing up words when speaking.
NYT’s editorial board said in the article: ‘It is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year… voters cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr Biden is not the man he was four years ago.’
The NYT board said he appeared on the debate stage ‘as the shadow of a great public figure’ who now ‘struggled’ to articulate his own policy position and ultimately failed to adequately counter Trump who is just three years junior to Biden.
The board wrote: ‘There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency,’ adding: ‘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.’
The editorial board concluded that Democrats have a better chance of winning against Trump if Biden finds a replacement and pulls out of the race.
However, the current crisis is not a personal one about Biden or Trump’s personalities or capabilities. The two would-be leaders have in fact an endless host of political and economic problems and a massive and deepening worldwide crisis of their capitalist system to grapple with.
It is the state of the United States of America, that is in steep decline and is no longer the master of the planet, that is the problem.
Russia and China, even as deformed workers’ states, are far more powerful economically and politically than the USA, and its host of minor allies, from the crisis-ridden UK to the crisis-ridden French and German Republics.
The second and final debate of the presumptive nominees is scheduled for September 10, 2024, and will be sponsored by ABC News. The location of the second debate has yet to be announced, but the likelihood is that Biden will have been replaced by then, by hook or even by a crook.
Meanwhile, the capitalist world is going up in flames at the hands of the USA’s Israeli ally.
An international human rights organisation has revealed that the Israeli occupation forces are committing ‘widespread massacres’ in two neighbourhoods in eastern Gaza City as the regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged territory proceeds.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor announced on Sunday that it had received reports of ‘widespread massacres’, and on-the-spot executions in the Shujaiya and Jdaida neighbourhoods carried out by Zionist killers.
‘Our field team is receiving reports of dozens, possibly hundreds, of victims being executed on the spot or having their shelters bombed,’ wrote Ramy Abdul, chairman of the Geneva-based group, in a post on X.
Earlier in the day, a United Nations spokesman said the Israeli military had intensified its attacks on the Shujaiya neighbourhood, resulting in civilian casualties and a displacement of at least 60,000 people.
UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the new Israeli offensive, including air and artillery strikes, in Shujayea had forced the displacement of ‘at least 60,000’ residents. The latest dictum as ordered by Ben-Gvir, the Israeli minister for National Security, is that prisoners must be executed in the drive to expel Palestinians from their homes,
The workers of the world, particularly the UK and the USA, must now take action. They must call general strikes to bring down the capitalist governments and to stop all weapons supplies to Israel. Now is the time for action. Forward with the Palestinian revolution, forward to the socialist state of Palestine, and to a Socialist US and Europe!
