Joe Biden’s reelection prospects are dimming in part because of self-inflicted wounds.
As the problems pile up, even prominent Democrats are starting to hedge their bets.
But now Obama officials are jumping ship on the Biden campaign and issuing a stark warning about the election.
Call it the political equivalent of friendly fire, but some of what’s being said about Joe Biden and his ability to win a second term is just brutal.
And it’s coming from members of the Obama-Biden White House.
Chief Obama speechwriter: “He sounds more frail than he used to”
During an interview on an episode of Pod Save America, chief Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau said that “if you watch Joe Biden speak, oftentimes he sounds frail and he sounds more frail than he used to, even in 2019 and 2020. The voice sounds frail and he shuffles more because of the arthritis in his back.”
Favreau’s blunt assessment of the President’s failing health was echoed by other Obama administration veterans.
Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer: If Biden can’t answer concerns over his age, he will lose in November
Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett and Former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer were also present for the interview.
Pfeiffer said if Biden can’t answer concerns over his age, then he believes he will lose in November.
Lovett seconded Favreau’s assessment and even went a step further by allowing for the argument that perhaps Biden shouldn’t be running in the first place.
Lovett said “I’m sure that [Biden being more visible on the campaign trail] means more missteps, more gaffes that start circulating, but if you don’t view Biden being out there as a net positive, then the argument he shouldn’t be running is right.”
While the speechwriters are just the latest Democrats with ties to the Obama administration to question Biden’s abilities to deliver for this fall, they are hardly alone in their nervousness.
In a January interview with Politico, Obama senior adviser David Axelrod derided Democrats who dismissed concerns about Biden’s campaign strategy as “bed wetting.”
In the interview, Axelrod said “I think that’s deeply, deeply unhelpful, because sometimes there’s reason to be concerned. And there are a lot of really smart and committed supporters of Biden who have concerns.”
“What you need to do is contemplate what it is that is concerning people and decide what is legitimate and what needs to be done,” he added. “There are people who are really, really committed to Joe Biden who felt a sense of concern and urgency — particularly because Donald Trump is on the other side of this race. So I thought it was extraordinarily tone-deaf and unhelpful.”
Nervousness about Biden’s prospects increased in recent weeks after the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report.
Hur’s report raised major questions about Biden’s ability to recall basic facts and timing of significant events.
The report stated that “we have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him-by then a former President well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
With Biden continuing to trail Trump in just about every swing state, the hand-wringing on the Left will surely intensify.
Patriot Political will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
