Biden withdrawal: Swiss newspapers welcome ‘inevitable’ decision

Better late than never – but US President Joe Biden’s decision on Sunday to pull out of the race for the White House was far too late, reckon the Swiss media. “Retirement and Kamala Harris, what else?” asked the Tribune de Genève, alluding to the punchline of a coffee capsule ad campaign featuring actor and Democrat fundraiser George Clooney, who ten days ago called for 81-year-old Biden to step aside. “The pressure was too great – from within his camp, the press and show business” for Biden to maintain his candidacy for the presidential election in November, the paper said in an editorial. “After a calamitous first debate, in which the octogenarian often looked lost, and quarantine due to Covid, Joe Biden was on the ropes.” Added to this was the “miracle of Pennsylvania” that “knocked him off his feet”: on July 13, in the middle of an election rally, a bullet “grazed the head” of his Republican opponent, former US President Donald Trump, piercing his ear. Biden, the paper said ...