As the New York Times editorial board went on record in the immediate aftermath of Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance by calling for him to step aside in the 2024 presidential race, many on the paper’s roster of left-leaning/leftist columnists were echoing the same point.
We reported on some of them at the time. Among them was Thomas Friedman, who wrote the infamous May 2022 column where he dished on having lunch with Biden. In it, he wrote: “For all you knuckleheads on Fox who say that Biden can’t put two sentences together, here’s a news flash: He just put NATO together, Europe together and the whole Western alliance together.”
READ MORE: New York Times Columnist’s Lunch Date With Joe Biden Backfires After Unintentional Revelations
That was then, though, and this is now:
Friedman, of course, is far from the only Times regular who has become well known for frequent bouts of, shall we say “wrongness.” Paul Krugman, who we’ve been reliably informed is an “expert” on all things related to the economy, has, too – as we’ve often documented.
Krugman was not among those at the Times who jumped on the “step down” bandwagon early on. But in a piece published Monday, Krugman – a Biden apologist on par with the likes of Chuck Todd if that is even possible – called on the POTUS to “do the right thing and step aside.”
Though he gushed about what an effective leader he claims Biden has been, Krugman suggested he was “damaged goods” at a time when Trump was supposedly too much of a threat to chance losing to:
But here’s the thing: Last month’s presidential debate gave Biden a golden opportunity to let the American people see both who he is and who Trump is, to be calm and reassuring while Trump ranted. And Biden utterly failed the test.
The only real hope for salvaging the situation would have been for Biden to get out there as soon as possible and as often as possible to do open-ended news conferences and interviews to show that his bad night was a fluke. For whatever reason he didn’t
The problem with that assessment is that Biden actually did “let the American people see” who he really is at that debate, which is precisely why a growing number of influential Democrats, donors, and liberal media news outlets (like the Times) are trying to push Biden off the ticket.
But beyond that, this is a pretty incredible turnaround for Krugman considering what he wrote about Dear Leader in February:
It’s also true that many voters think the president’s age is an issue. But there’s perception and there’s reality: As anyone who has recently spent time with Biden (and I have) can tell you, he is in full possession of his faculties — completely lucid and with excellent grasp of detail. Of course, most voters don’t get to see him up close, and it’s on Biden’s team to address that. And yes, he speaks quietly and a bit slowly, although this is in part because of his lifetime struggle with stuttering. He also, by the way, has a sense of humor, which I think is important.
As we’ve reported before, Krugman lives in a total bubble, where reality is not allowed to penetrate. This was confirmed during the summer of 2020, when he proclaimed the Antifa/BLM-led riots taking place in Democrat-run cities like New York were “non-existent” because he was able to go for morning runs in his upper-crust neighborhood without being accosted by “black-clad anarchists.”
He doubled down months later, declaring that “the people actually living in” the cities that had experienced rioting had not really experienced it.
Though Paul Krugman doesn’t live in the real world, the rest of us do, and we can see with our own eyes what he refuses to admit about the current Oval Office occupant.
The good news here is that few people take Krugman seriously anymore. The bad news is that he takes himself seriously, which is why his ego must get knocked down a peg or two when the occasion calls for it. And on that, I am certainly happy to oblige.
Flashback: Paul Krugman Gets the Burn Ward Treatment After Declaring Inflation Battle ‘Painless’
