New York Times makes bombshell demand of Joe Biden after the president's disastrous debate performance

After relegating coverage of his disastrous debate performance to a small paragraph in their front page coverage, The New York Times has finally weighed in on Biden's bad night, urging the president to drop out of the race for The White House.

The newspaper's scathing opinion piece observed that Biden appeared to be a 'shadow' of himself and that the argument that he was the best Democratic candidate to take on Trump was no longer valid. 

The paper agreed with Biden's opinion that another Trump presidency would be a disaster for the country and would imperil the nation's democracy. 

They wrote glowingly about Biden's administration, calling him an 'admirable president.'   

But then the Times, unable to ignore the president's awful performance, put it bluntly, saying: 'Mr. Biden can't continue this race.' 

This marks a U-turn for the 'paper of record,' who drew flak Friday morning after their print edition of the paper failed to comment Biden's awful showing at the debate.

Instead, the paper focused on issues that were largely peripheral- Iran escalating their nuclear work and an analysis of Julian Assange's legal drama. 

This was patently at variance with other major papers like the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, each of whom reported on the debate in the print editions of their papers. 

At the bottom of their morning paper, The New York Times merely directed their readers to check out their coverage of the debate online. 

This sparked controversy with many pundits questioning whether the Times would have been so taciturn if Biden had performed better or if Trump had performed worse.

The opinion published by paper's editorial board on Friday evening marked a change of heart for the liberal paper.

Although the editors said that left with the choice between Trump and Biden, 'the sitting president would be this board's unequivocal pick,' the meaning of the piece was clear:

The New York Times is ready for Biden to quit the presidential race. 

The liberal newspaper did not pull its punches when offering its verdict on Biden's appearance during the debate, which was hosted in Atlanta. 

The editorial board wrote: 

'The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. 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.'