President Joe Biden may have brushed aside concerns over his electability, but a former Obama advisor thinks the 81-year-old could be headed for a calamitous defeat this November.
“The one person that no one can outrun is Father Time,” David Axelrod told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Sunday. “There are certain immutable facts of life, and those were painfully obvious on that debate stage, and the president just hasn’t come to grips with it.”
“He’s not winning this race. If you just look at the data and talk to political people around the country, it’s more likely that he’ll lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race,” Axelrod, who is also a senior political commentator for CNN, added.
Axelrod’s scathing assessment comes after a week of turmoil for the Biden. The presumptive Democratic nominee has faced growing calls for him to step down following a disastrous presidential debate with former President Donald Trump on June 27.
In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that aired Friday, Biden dismissed his poor performance as a “bad night.”
“It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing,” Biden said.
But that explanation didn’t seem to convince Axelrod, who was a key strategist behind former President Barack Obama’s victories in the 2008 and 2012 elections.
On Friday, Axelrod said in an X post that Biden is “dangerously out-of-touch with the concerns people have about his capacities moving forward.”
The president is rightfully proud of his record.
But he is dangerously out-of-touch with the concerns people have about his capacitiies moving forward and his standing in this race.
Four years ago at this time, he was 10 points ahead of Trump.
Today, he is six points behind.— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 6, 2024
“If the stakes are as large as he says, and I believe they are, then he really needs to consider what the right thing to do here is,” Axelrod told CNN on Sunday.
To be sure, this isn’t the first time Axelrod has criticized Biden’s candidacy. In an X post published in November, Axelrod said that the decision on whether to run or not was Biden’s to make.
“If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?” Axelrod wrote.
Only @JoeBiden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) November 5, 2023
Axelrod later clarified those comments in an interview with Politico, which was published a week later.
“It’s overreacting to say I told him to drop out,” Axelrod said. “I didn’t do that.”
Representatives for Biden didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
