Members of the media are now openly calling on President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race following his "disaster" CNN debate performance.
"I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, throwing the choice of Democratic nominee to the convention," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote on X.
"Someone like @gretchenwhitmer or @SherrodBrown or @SecRaimondo could still jump in and beat Trump," Kristof added, referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, and Biden's Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo.
MEDIA FIGURES SHOCKED AT BIDEN'S 'BAD' DEBATE PERFORMANCE: ‘TOTAL AND COMPLETE DISASTER’
Kristof was far from alone.
"Biden will be a one-term president," Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt declared. "He still has the chance to watch a Democrat be inaugurated. There are 68 days until the DNC. Whitmer/Moore beats Trump."
"If Biden truly believes Democracy is on the line, he should step aside and let another democrat step in to take on Trump. Put the country first," said Alyssa Farah Griffin of "The View."
BIDEN RIPPED FOR ‘OLD’ APPEARANCE, ‘WEAK’ VOICE DURING FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: ‘DEEPLY ALARMING’
"This is a disaster," Financial Times associate editor Edward Luce panicked online. "Democrats need to end their self-imposed censorship on Biden and fix this. There's two months until the convention. Other countries hold general elections in less time than that."
"It’s over. Biden looks and sounds ancient. Losing his train of thought. Speaking in a barely audible whisper. They have to pull him!!!" The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur exclaimed.
The popular aggregate website Drudge Report ran the blared the headline "OPERATION: REPLACE BIDEN."
"DEMS SCRAMBLE WITH 130 DAYS TO GO! DEBATE CATASTROPHE," Drudge Report wrote in all caps.
BIDEN MAKES STUNNING OMISSION WHILE CLAIMING NO TROOPS DIED ‘ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD' ON HIS WATCH
CNN commentator Van Jones, who famously cried on-air when Biden was projected the winner of the 2020 presidential election, offered an emotional plea for the president to step aside.
"I love that guy as a good man. He loves his country. He’s doing the best that he can. But he had a test to meet tonight, to restore confidence of the country and of the base and he failed to do that," Jones said. "And I think there’s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now."
"We’re still far from our convention and there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that. But that was not what we needed from Joe Biden. And it’s personally painful for a lot of people. It’s not just panic. It’s pain of what we saw tonight," Jones added.
