After Much Biden Criticism, Times Goes After Trump, Too

The editorial and op-ed pages of the New York Times have been hostile territory of late for President Biden. Not only has the editorial board called on him to withdraw from the 2024 race, but so have numerous op-ed writers, from George Clooney to Nicholas Kristof. On Thursday, however, a Times editorial went after Donald Trump as "unfit to lead," reports the Hill.

• The editorial says the debate among Democrats over Biden is a worthy one given the stakes, adding that it's "a national tragedy that the Republicans have failed to have a similar debate about the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of their standard-bearer."

• Trump "has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency," writes the editorial board. "He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people." If the party won't reject him, it's imperative that American voters do so in November, the editorial concludes.
• Anger: The White House may be pleased to see the editorial, but Axios reports that staffers there are "apoplectic" at the newspaper for what they see as unbalanced coverage. Still, the analysis by Mike Allen faults the White House for shielding Biden from "tough questioning" from journalists prior to the debate. (Which makes Thursday's NATO press conference all the more important.)
• Media failure? Yes, Biden's debate performance is a story that deserves much coverage, writes media columnist Margaret Sullivan at the Guardian. But also true is that the coverage has been "overkill—not only too much in quantity and too breathless in tone, but also taking up so much oxygen that a story even more important is shoved to the back burner," she writes. That story, she writes, is Trump's "appalling unfitness" for the same job. (Read the full column by Sullivan, former public editor of the New York Times and media columnist for the Washington Post.)