Former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly predicted President Joe Biden will soon drop out of the race after a disastrous debate performance. Biden’s aides and liberal news outlets have also suggested the president should stop his re-election bid.
President Joe Biden will soon drop out of the 2024 presidential race, longtime conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly suggested recently.
“Expect this. Sometime soon, President Biden will step aside as President Johnson did in 1968. Vietnam got him. But first, the K Street Democrats in D.C. have to quietly float replacement names with the top liberal media moguls,” O’Reilly said on his website Monday. “Something as monumental as this is not done spontaneously. The liberal media and Hollywood money people will have input.”
“What is absolutely certain is that Joe Biden is finished as a powerful man,” O’Reilly added. “Shortly, he will have to go quietly into the night, pretty much dragging Jill Biden with him.”
O’Reilly, who was host for more than two decades of the popular The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News and now comments at his own website and for NewsNation, made the prediction following an underwhelming performance by Biden at last week’s debate against Donald Trump.
His prediction mirrors the desire and speculation of prominent liberal voices and outlets, including The New York Times editorial board, which urged Biden to drop out just one day after the presidential debate.
The board wrote:
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. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.
Biden is currently engaged in a “reckless gamble,” according to the Times, because if he continues down this path, Trump will likely win.
“There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency,” the editorial board argued. “There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden.”
“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,” according to the liberal newspaper.
After reiterating how much it despises Trump, the editorial pleaded with Democratic strategists to convince Biden to drop out of the race.
“Democrats who have deferred to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader,” the editorial board wrote. “The confidants and aides who have encouraged the president’s candidacy and who sheltered him from unscripted appearances in public should recognize the damage to Mr. Biden’s standing and the unlikelihood that he can repair it.”
Biden has also lost the support of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Georgia is considered a swing state in the 2024 presidential election. “The 81-year-old president has shown a greater capacity to tell the truth than his opponent, former President Donald Trump,” the editorial board wrote on Saturday, June 29. “But the unfortunate truth is that Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century.”
Some Democratic activists and aides have expressed concern about Biden in recent days.
“They’ve just been trying to skate to the general election with as minimal exposure as possible to the public. And now it’s blown up on them,” former Democratic National Committee delegate Thomas Kennedy told The Intercept. The news outlet reported that chances are low Biden will drop out of the race.
But concerns remain.
“Biden is toast,” one Democratic activist told Politico after the debate.
“In text messages with POLITICO, Democrats expressed confusion and concern as they watched the first minutes of the event,” the news outlet reported. “One former Biden White House and campaign aide called it ‘terrible,’ adding that they have had to ask themselves over and over: ‘What did he just say? This is crazy.’”
Some family members are blaming Biden aides for the president’s poor performance, according to a Sunday article in Politico. “First lady Jill Biden and his son Hunter Biden were the loudest voices urging the president to stay in the 2024 contest,” the outlet reported, based on unnamed sources.
Biden’s “cognitive health” remains an issue for many voters.
“For months before the first debate, the nation’s voters repeatedly expressed doubts over whether President Biden had the cognitive health enough to serve,” CBS News reported today. “Today, those doubts have grown even more: now at nearly three-quarters of the electorate, and now including many within his own party.”
Among registered voters, only 27 percent think Biden has the “mental & cognitive health to serve as president.” About 50% of registered voters, or twice as many, say Trump does.
The post-debate poll found in general, registered voters trusted Trump more. For example, 18 percent said Biden “inspired confidence,” while 44 percent said Trump did. Similarly, 21 percent said Biden “presented ideas clearly,” while 47 percent said Trump did.
The differences were not as large when it came to the question of a candidate’s ability to explain “plans & policies,” with 35 percent of respondents saying Biden did and 43 percent saying Trump did.
Among Democratic registered voters, 55 percent said he should continue running, while 45 percent said he should not.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled for August 19 through the 22nd.
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