David Axelrod, a CNN commentator and former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, predicted that Joe Biden is more likely to lose the 2024 election by a landslide than narrowly win following his disastrous debate performance.
“Tom Brady won a Super Bowl three years ago, and he’s out of football, OK? Why? Doesn’t detract from his greatness or what he’s done,” Axelrod, a chief strategist for Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, said on CNN Sunday.
“It’s just — there are certain immutable facts of life, and those were painfully obvious on that debate stage, and the president just doesn’t seem to … he hasn’t come to grips with it,” he added.
“He’s not winning this race. He’s more likely, if you just look at the data and talk to people around the country, political people around the country, it’s more likely that he’ll lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race. And 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.”
In an op-ed published by CNN on Saturday, Axelrod wrote that Biden’s Friday interview on ABC failed to quell the panic that has gripped the Democratic Party since the June 27 debate.
During the interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, 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 former President Donald Trump by 2 to 6 percentage points nationally.
Axelrod characterized Biden’s responses as: “Denial. Delusion. Defiance.”
A growing chorus of Democrats around the country, including several members of Congress, have called on the president to step down so that a younger candidate can take on Trump in November after his stumbling performance on the debate stage.
