Editorial: President Joe Biden had to step down from the election race, but doing so late has made it hard for his party

President Joe Biden yesterday bowed to the inevitable and decided not to face re-election.​

The presidential race will be held in November, and Donald Trump was pulling well ahead of President Biden.

Last weekend’s terrifying and sickening assassination attempt seemed only to cement Mr Trump’s lead.

Mr Biden had seemed to be doomed electorally after his disastrous performance in the head-to-head presidential debate with Mr Trump late last month. After many months of increasing signs in public of his cognitive decline, the debate made that mental frailty crystal clear to millions of Americans.

Since then he has made further, and humiliating, gaffes – even referring to his vice-president Kamala Harris as ‘Trump’.

Yet his wife Jill and closest confidantes seemed determined for President Biden to stay in the race, despite a growing revolt within his Democratic Party.

People in Northern Ireland had an early glimpse of the problems. We are fortunate as a small country to get US presidential visits, and so we were were pleased to have President Biden here last year celebrating 25 years of the Belfast Agreement.

But it did seem that he was protected from any unscripted speaking or encounters.

That he has stayed in the election race so long, and when he was in obvious decline, now means that it will be very hard for any of his Democratic Party colleagues to beat Mr Trump. Ms Harris is not popular, and will struggle against Mr Trump.

Many unionists have no love for Democrats, who tend to sympathise with nationalist Ireland. Mr Biden certainly did.

But Mr Trump has been cavalier about crucial western alliances, in which the US and UK are partners, such as Nato. The options in this contest are not looking great from a British perspective.