Joe Biden could face a significant defeat against Donald Trump this November, according to David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Barack Obama. Axelrod believes Biden is “dangerously out-of-touch” with the current political climate. Despite Biden’s confidence in his electability, Axelrod suggests the 81-year-old president might be heading for a catastrophic loss.
“The one person that no one can outrun is Father Time,” Axelrod told CNN’s Pamela Brown. “There are certain immutable facts of life, and those were painfully obvious on that debate stage. The president just hasn’t come to grips with it.” Axelrod added, “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.”
Axelrod’s harsh critique follows a tumultuous week for Biden. The presumptive Democratic nominee has faced increasing calls to step down after a disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump on June 27. In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Biden dismissed his poor performance as a “bad night,” attributing it to exhaustion and poor preparation.
However, Axelrod remains unconvinced. In a post on X, Axelrod stated that Biden is “dangerously out-of-touch with the concerns people have about his capacities moving forward.” He noted that four years ago, Biden was ten points ahead of Trump, but now he is six points behind.
“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. This isn’t the first time Axelrod has criticized Biden’s candidacy. In a post last November, Axelrod suggested that Biden needs to decide whether running is in his best interest or the country’s.
Axelrod later clarified his comments, stating, “It’s overreacting to say I told him to drop out. I didn’t do that.” Representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
David Axelrod, now a CNN commentator, reiterated his belief that Biden is more likely to lose the 2024 election by a landslide than narrowly win. “Tom Brady won a Super Bowl three years ago, and he’s out of football. Why? It doesn’t detract from his greatness or what he’s done,” Axelrod said on CNN. “There are certain immutable facts of life, and those were painfully obvious on that debate stage. The president just doesn’t seem to have come to grips with it.”
Axelrod emphasized that Biden’s Friday interview on ABC failed to quell the panic within the Democratic Party since the June 27 debate. During the interview, Biden insisted he’s fit to run and would not exit the race unless the “Lord Almighty came down” and told him to. He also dismissed polls showing him lagging behind Trump by 2 to 6 percentage points nationally. Axelrod characterized Biden’s responses as “Denial. Delusion. Defiance.”
A growing number of Democrats, including several members of Congress, have called on Biden to step down so that a younger candidate can take on Trump in November. Axelrod has long sounded alarms over voter unease about Biden’s age, and his public concerns have reportedly rankled the president.
“If the stakes are as large as [Biden] says, and I believe they are, then he really needs to consider what the right thing to do here is,” Axelrod told CNN. He previously described Biden’s debate performance as “woeful” and summarized the president’s post-debate interview with ABC News in three words: “Denial. Delusion. Defiance.”
Axelrod praised Biden for overcoming “tremendous loss and tremendous odds” throughout his life, noting that Biden’s psyche is that he can beat anybody and any long odds. However, Axelrod warned that Biden might not be able to beat “Father Time,” which is the real concern.
Biden insists he would not be running if he didn’t believe he could handle the job. In a pre-taped interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden claimed that his “bad episode” at the debate was due to a cold and not any cognitive issues. He has rejected calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, insisting that he is the most qualified to win the election.
Axelrod noted that former NFL star Tom Brady won a Super Bowl just a few years ago but isn’t playing football anymore because of his age. He underscored that he has “a really high regard” for Biden, who he credited for having “done some historically important things,” and stressed that “history will be much kinder to him than voters are right now.”
Axelrod said, “The only thing pushing [Biden] out of politics is the immutable march of time” and implored him to consider his legacy if he loses to Trump. Biden, when pressed on how he’d feel in January 2025 if he lost the November election, told ABC News that he’d be fine “as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do.”
“If his all is not enough, maybe someone else can give more because they have more energy and they have a longer runway in the future,” Axelrod said of Biden’s remark. The president is trailing Donald Trump in a slew of polling from battleground states and national matchups.
Already, at least five House Democrats have publicly urged Biden to pass the torch, something he’s rejected. Biden’s allies have drawn attention to the slew of Democrats that are sticking with him, including the entourage that greeted him for his swing through Pennsylvania on Sunday.
Source: CNN, ABC News, Politico
