Biden’s Arguments for Withdrawing

The implicit arguments provided by Biden for his withdrawing from the race include his performance at the 6/27/2024 debate, and other off-prompter falterings.

But on 7/3/2024, it got explicit: the NY Times headlined that: “Biden Told Ally That He Is Weighing Whether to Continue in the Race”, saying that “The president’s conversation is the first indication that he is seriously considering whether he can recover after a devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday.”

And a 29 year old Biden also gave Americans (in 1972) another explicit argument for his now withdrawing when Biden ran against 62 year old Republican Sen. Cale Boggs.  According to CBS News’ summary, young Biden told the press that his opponent “has lost that twinkle in his eyes” since he “doesn’t really want to run again”, and Biden floated a rumor that if reelected Boggs would retire after two years.  The 29 year-old Biden was reported to have claimed that his 62 year-old opponent was simply no longer up to the job the way young Biden was:  ”If Senator Boggs and I could just go down to the football stadium at the University of Delaware and people saw the two of us, they’d pick me.”

An newspaper ad from Joe Biden’s 1972 campaign for U.S. Senate. The ad appeared in The News Journal.
THE NEWS JOURNAL/NEWSPAPERS.COM