Mike Mulvaney, a former chief of staff to President Trump, said he was “stunned” by President Biden’s campaign’s decision to “over-hype” Friday’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, calling the interview “mediocre” and “didn’t change anyone’s mind.”
“I know the White House has described the interview you just showed as energetic and eloquent. […] “If they believe it, then we have a problem, if they don’t believe it, then we have a problem,” Mulvaney said in an interview with NewsNation’s Markie Martin.
“I’m a little surprised that after all that hype from the campaign, it’s had such a mediocre performance,” he added.
Mulvaney spoke with Martin on Saturday morning amid growing reaction to Biden’s performance in the June 28 debate, in which the president stumbled and appeared hoarse at times. Minutes into the debate, Democrats were already starting to panic about whether Biden could beat Trump.
Since the debate, many Democrats have called on Biden to resign as their party’s nominee, and five current House members have also publicly said he should step down. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is believed to be circulating a letter to his colleagues calling on the president to step down.
Biden and his campaign have been adamant that the president will not resign, and the ABC interview is part of a strategy to ease concerns about his ability to do his job.
Democrats generally seemed unimpressed with the interview, saying it didn’t do much to ease people’s concerns. A fifth House member issued a statement after the interview calling on Biden to resign.
Mulvaney added that he believes the Biden team handled the fallout from the debate poorly, creating more problems for the campaign.
“The debate was awful, but it was even worse run,” Mulvaney said. “It was a horrible debate, but afterwards the staff really had to step up and make money.”
But Mulvaney doesn’t believe that’s happened, instead pointing out that First Lady Jill Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, have stepped in to help the president, saying their involvement would create “tensions.”
“When you have a new group coming into the White House, whether it’s their family members taking over and cleaning up the mess that the previous team made, that can create all kinds of tensions within the White House,” Mulvaney added. “That creates a lot of tension and what you’re seeing is the result of that. You’re not seeing a good, unified, consistent response.”
Martin asked Mulvaney if he thought Harris would still be the nominee if Biden dropped out, and Mulvaney said he believed Harris was the only viable candidate.
“I don’t see how my friends in the Democratic Party who are so tied up in identity politics would ignore an African-American woman vice president,” Mulvaney said. “If he can’t run, maybe there’s a better candidate. Maybe. But the primaries are over, the voters have spoken, and Democratic voters want Joe Biden to block this nomination.”
“If the situation were to change, my guess would be that Kamala Harris would either become the nominee or else split the party,” he added.
Mulvaney also dismissed calls for Biden to take a cognitive ability test, saying only “politicians and media people in Washington” cared about that.
“I’m not sure that rural voters care about cognitive tests,” he says. “What they care about is whether the president can do the job, whether he looks like he can do the job, whether he acts like he can do the job. And right now, the impression among many voters is that Joe Biden can’t do that. I’m not sure that cognitive tests really answer that question.”
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