Joe Biden's campaign is hitting back after the New York Times called on the president in a startling editorial to drop out of the race for the presidency to "serve his country" following his disastrous performance in the debate against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Biden's campaign noted that the Democratic presidential candidates the Times endorsed in 2020 — both Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren — lost the 2020 nomination.

"The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board's endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him," campaign co-chair campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said in a statement. 

Amid the extraordinary call by the newspaper for Biden to drop out, former President Barack Obama and others also rushed to Biden's defense.

The newspaper insisted in an editorial highlighted on the front page that the stakes are too high to have the wrong man battle the dangerous Trump in a contest that will determine "nothing less than the future of democracy," 

Biden "is not the man he was four years ago" when he beat Trump, the Times noted following the president's fragile, muddled performance in his face-off against his opponent, whose own appearance "should have been disqualifying" for his brazen lies and devastating plans for the nation, the paper added.

Democrats "must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party's leader," the Times urged.

While talk mounted among Democrats about replacing Biden, Obama quickly came to his defense, declaring in a social media post: "Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know," he added, referring to his own disastrous debate performance to win re-election in 2012.

The race still comes down to a choice between "someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit," Obama wrote.

Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 28, 2024

Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro urged everyone to calm down, saying that Democrats need to "stop worrying" and "start working."

"Here's the bottom line. Joe Biden had a bad debate night, but Donald Trump was a bad president," Shapiro said on CNN. 

An energetic Biden appeared on Friday at a North Carolina rally where he admitted: "I don't debate as well as I used to."

But he added: "But I do know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong and I know how to do this job."