President Biden is now facing calls from members of the international community who want him to quit the 2024 presidential race, with even leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warning that “Biden has a problem.”
“He’s moving more slowly, he is taking longer to answer questions,” Lula explained to a local radio station, according to Bloomberg. “The U.S. elections are very important for all the world.”
Biden’s first presidential debate against former President Trump last month proved to be a debacle, leading Biden to admit just days later that he “screwed up.”
“I had a bad night,” Biden, 81, said Thursday in an interview with radio host Earl Ingram. “And the fact of the matter is that, you know, I screwed up.”
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While Republicans predictably criticized the performance, even Democrats have fallen into a panic, and the president has had to hold crisis talks with close allies to reassure them he’s still up to the job — and will be for another four years.
Former President Trump and President Biden debate in Atlanta on June 27. (Getty Images)
The debate, however, sent shock waves through the international community, with some allies refusing to stay quiet about an issue that they see as being too important to treat delicately.
Matteo Renzi, who served as Italian prime minister from 2014 to 2016 and who proved to be a close friend to Democrats during his tenure, wrote on social media platform X that “Joe Biden can’t do it.”
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“As Senator, Vice President, President he served the United States of America with honor,” Renzi wrote. “He doesn’t deserve an inglorious ending, he doesn’t deserve one. Changing horses is a duty for everyone.”
From left: Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy; Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada; Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan; Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of Great Britain; EU Council President Charles Michel; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD); Emmanuel Macron, President of France; EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President Biden watch parachutists at the G-7 summit in Fasano, Italy, on June 13. (Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski struck a similar tone in a cryptic message on X that some have taken to be an unfavorable comparison between Biden and the great Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
“Marcus Aurelius was a great emperor, but he screwed up his succession by passing the baton to his feckless son Commodus (He, from the Gladiator) whose disastrous rule started Rome’s decline),” Sikorski wrote. “It’s important to manage one’s ride into the sunset.”
President Biden, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attend a session on Africa, climate change and development on the first day of the G-7 summit in Savelletri, Italy, on June 13. (Reuters/Yara Nardi)
Marie-Agness Strack-Zimmermann, a German politician and current Chair of the Defense Committee of the Bundestag, told one outlet, “The fact that a man like Trump could become president again because the Democrats are unable to put up a strong candidate against him would be a historic tragedy that the whole world would feel,” The Guardian reported.
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Other European officials have reportedly started to privately argue that Biden should step aside in favor of someone with a stronger chance of beating Trump, with Vice President Kamala Harris one of the leading candidates to assume the task.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appear on the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Bloomberg reported that sources familiar with high-level discussions between European officials worry about the U.S. election due to its potential impact on Ukraine and NATO at a time when Russia remains aggressive.
Biden will have a chance to reassure America’s allies during a NATO summit that he will host in the U.S. next week, with his every action under intense scrutiny. One official at the G-7 meeting in Italy last month told Bloomberg that an air of worry hung around the meetings due to Biden’s apparent cognitive issues.
One person familiar with those conversations told The Washington Post that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had seen Biden as “mentally on top of his game” but physically weak — concerns that grew more pronounced following the debate.
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In Asia, Japan and South Korea, uneasiness has increased about a return to the strained relations of the Trump era, when his administration urged greater financial contributions for military assistance and tensions rose due to aggressive trade practices, Reuters reported.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Remy Numa contributed to this report.