Former President Barack Obama’s former chief strategist on Sunday laid out the grim picture for President Biden’s re-election bid, predicting he’s more likely to “lose by a landslide” than to win narrowly.
“He can’t win this election,” David Axelrod, one of the key architects of Obama’s two presidential victories, told CNN’s “Inside Politics.”
“If you look at the data, if you talk to people across the country, if you talk to politicians across the country, you’re more likely to lose this election by a large margin than to win it by a small margin,” Axelrod said of Biden, 81, who was President Barack Obama’s vice president.
Obama Publicly Supported Biden comes amid Democratic uproar over the president’s disastrous performance in a debate last month with Republican rival President Donald Trump.
But Axelrod has previously warned about voter anxiety about Biden’s age, and his public anxiety has reportedly irritated the president.
“When the stakes are this high, [Biden] “That’s what he’s saying, and I believe that, but then he really needs to think about what the right thing to do is here,” Axelrod told CNN.
Axelrod previously slammed Biden’s debate performance as “terrible.” Wrote an op-ed for CNN That’s how the president later summarized his key post-debate televised interview with ABC News in three words: “Denial. Delusion. Defiance.”
“[Biden] “Biden seemed to be in denial about where he stood on the campaign trail. He didn’t seem to understand the major concerns people have,” Axelrod said of Biden’s interview on Friday.
Axelrod praised Biden for overcoming “tremendous loss and tremendous hardship” throughout his life, saying “he has the mentality that he can overcome anybody, against any odds.”
“What he can’t beat is the passage of time, and that’s a real concern,” the commentator said of the president, who has muttered, stalled and stared blankly into space during debates with Trump.
A prominent Democratic strategist warned that former President Trump was “an unprecedentedly flawed candidate in many ways” and “presents a real danger to our democracy,” which is what makes this year’s election so important.
Axelrod noted that former NFL star Tom Brady no longer plays football due to his age, even though he won a Super Bowl a few years ago.
Political experts stressed that they have a “very high opinion” of Biden, saying he has “accomplished something of historical importance,” and that “history will likely be much kinder to him than it is to today’s voters.”
Axelrod said: [Biden] “Retreating from politics is a timeless trend,” he said, urging the 78-year-old Trump to think about the legacy he would leave if he lost.
Asked how he would feel in January 2025 if he lost the November election, Biden told ABC News he’d be OK “as long as I’ve done my best and I’ve done the best job I know I can.”
“If all he’s got isn’t enough, maybe someone else can contribute more because they have more energy and they have a longer way to go,” Axelrod said of Biden’s comments.
In an interview with ABC News, Biden accepted responsibility for his debate gaffes and said he was “exhausted” but insisted he was up to the job of president.
At least five House Democrats have already publicly encouraged Biden to name a successor, but Biden has rejected the idea.
Biden’s allies have noted the large number of Democrats who support him, including aides who greeted him during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
