2024-07-08
7 分钟The Economist. Hi, John Priddo here.
I host Checks and Balance, our podcast on US politics.
Welcome to Editors Picks.
Here's an article from the latest edition of The Economist handpicked by our team and read aloud.
I hope you enjoy it.
The presidential debate was awful for Joe Biden, but the cover-up has been worse.
It was agony to watch a befuddled old man struggling to recall words and facts.
His inability to land an argument against a weak opponent was dispiriting.
But the operation by his campaign to deny what tens of millions of Americans saw with their own eyes is more toxic than either
because its dishonesty provokes contempt.
The effect has been to put the White House within Donald Trump's grasp.
Fresh polls have found that voters in the states Mr Biden must win have moved against him.
His lead may be in danger even in once safe states such as Virginia,
Minnesota and New Mexico.
Mr Biden deserves to be remembered for his accomplishments and his decency rather than his decline.
So it is right that the first senior Democrats have begun to call openly for him to step aside.
However,
their public expressions are nothing compared with the building wave of private dismay.
More of them urgently need to face up to the fact that if they do not speak out now,
Mr Trump will win.