A desperate Joe Biden has hit back at the New York Times after it told him to drop out of the presidential race following his disastrous debate.

A senior adviser to the president told CNN: ‘The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him’.

The Times had previously endorsed two Democratic presidential candidates in 2020: Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. 

But on Friday the editorial board wrote Biden ‘is not the man he was four years ago’ and criticized his rationale for running, saying it was a ‘reckless gamble’.

Meanwhile the fallout from the debate has left Democratic donors floating the idea of an ‘intervention’ led by Obama to get the sitting president to see sense after he was widely mocked for his performance against Trump.

Insiders described the 81-year-old’s debate showing as a ‘train wreck’ and ‘dumpster fire’ and some openly suggested he should step aside for another candidate

In a blunt editorial, the New York Times slammed him as a ‘shadow’ of his former self as they admitted the once ‘admirable’ politician ‘struggled to make it to the end of a sentence’

After Biden lost his train of thought at one point and stared ahead blankly, Donald Trump said: ‘I really don’t know what he just said’

There have been discussions with political advisers about arcane rules under which Biden could be removed from the ticket against his will and replaced at or before the Democratic National Convention, according to a person familiar with the effort. 

Meanwhile a Silicon Valley group of megadonors, including Ron Conway and Laurene Powell Jobs, were calling, texting and emailing one another about a situation they described as a possible catastrophe, according to CNN.

The donors wondered about whom in the Biden fold they could contact to reach Jill Biden, the first lady, who it is thought could persuade her husband not to run.

One Silicon Valley donor who had planned to host an intimate fund-raiser featuring  Biden this summer has reportedly decided not to go through with the gathering because of the debate.

Meanwhile another major California donor left a debate watch party early and emailed a friend with the subject line: ‘Utter disaster’. 

The donor worries come after Biden meandered through the 90-minute CNN spectacle, struggling to finish sentences and losing his train of thought multiple times in front of tens of millions of stunned TV viewers.