United States | The comeback kidder

Joe Biden is failing to silence calls that he step aside

And some senior Democrats may merely be holding their fire

President Joe Biden departs the stage after speaking during a campaign event at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania on January 5th 2024
Photograph: Getty Images
|WASHINGTON, DC

Feel for Joe Biden. If you too had spent half a century coveting a job, you might be reluctant to give it up. When the octogenarian turned in the most disastrous debate performance in modern times on June 27th, alarmed fellow Democrats began agitating for him to gracefully withdraw from his re-election campaign. The confused guy who appeared on stage seemed in no state to defeat Donald Trump in November, let alone govern the country into 2029.

Explore more

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The comeback kidder”

From the July 13th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from United States

Xiaohongshu And TikTok Logos

A protest against America’s TikTok ban is mired in contradiction

Another Chinese app is not the alternative some young Americans think it is

Joe Biden drives a machine that's rolling out a carpet of the US flag for Donald Trump to walk on

How Joe Biden wound up serving Donald Trump

In some ways, his administration will look less like an interregnum than like MAGA-lite


Kids skate at the Venice Skatepark in LA, which is covered in ashes as smoke rises from the Palisades Fire

How bad will the smoke be for Angelenos’ health?

Expect more sickness and disrupted schooling


Should you have to prove your age before watching porn?

America’s Supreme Court weighs a Texan law aimed at protecting kids

Tulsi Gabbard, Sean Penn and the hunt for an American hostage

A controversial trip to Syria in 2017 produced a possible sighting of Austin Tice, an imprisoned journalist

How flush Americans feel depends on their views of Donald Trump

Republicans expect a Trumponomics boom, Democrats dread a bust