Journalist who's known Biden for decades urges him to drop out of race: 'Painful to watch'

A veteran journalist who started covering Joe Biden in the early 1970s called on the president to drop out of the White House race on Wednesday.

Journalist Curtis Wilkie, who has covered eight presidential campaigns and White House administrations, called on President Biden to drop out of the race in an op-ed for Mississippi Today, arguing it's become "painful to watch" the president he's known for decades.

"President Biden should never have sought a second term," Wilkie wrote. 

Wilkie joins a long list of media outlets, reporters and Democrats who have called on Biden to drop out following a rocky debate performance. 

"I have an unusual perspective on this discussion dominating American politics considering I’ve known Joe Biden longer than any reporter who ever covered him. I’ve witnessed over the years how the relentless demands of the presidency have ravaged other occupants of the White House. And I share with Biden the frailties of old age that grip us both and have begun to diminish our physical and cognitive powers," Wilkie wrote. 

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Wilkie detailed his experiences with Biden as early as 1971, when he was a local reporter in Delaware and when Biden was a New Castle County councilman. 

The veteran journalist, who is 83, said he found his own moments of aging troubling, and compared his own mishaps to the president's. 

"So it’s been 17 years since I’ve seen him. I never had the opportunity to address him as ‘Mr. President.’ He will always be Joe to me. This fall I’ll be 84 and Biden will be 82. I began worrying about both of us a couple of years ago," he wrote. 

"He butchers names or can’t remember them at all. Sometimes he appears balmy. His enthusiasm seems withered," Wilkie wrote. "When Biden walked onto the set of the infamous debate last month, he did so with shuffling half-steps, the gait of an old man."

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He said watching the president on TV has become "painful."

"His Democratic Party is faced with its worst nightmare, the distinct possibility of a sweeping victory in November for Trump and his MAGA followers. And instead of leaving a strong personal legacy, Biden may be remembered in the history of this turbulent period as a selfish man, weakened by age, who clung to his office too long," Wilkie concluded. 

The New York Times editorial board, along with several other newspapers and prominent opinion columnists, have called on the president to not seek re-election in the weeks following his brutal debate performance.

A long list of Democrats also have called on him to drop out, citing concerns about Trump winning the election, including influential California Rep. Adam Schiff on Wednesday.