David Axelrod didn’t mince words after former President Donald J. Trump’s big win in the Iowa caucuses, saying that it’s time for Team Biden to pick up their game against the “formidable” GOP frontrunner.
The shock from Trump’s dominant performance was still sinking in at CNN when Barack Obama’s former top strategist appeared on Tuesday’s edition of “CNN This Morning” where the panel discussed the previous night’s contest.
“The president and his campaign need to get into gear and they need a message,” the veteran political operative said, delivering a kick in the pants to the geriatric Democrat and his staffers.
(Video: CNN)
“And they need a message that takes in not just democracy but the day-to-day concerns that people have, and they need to prosecute it every single day through every single surrogate,” Axelrod added, strongly recommending that Biden needs to expand his argument for reelection beyond his crazed demagoguery against Trump and his supporters.
“Let’s all be aware — and Trump proved again yesterday — he is not a normal candidate and he is a pretty formidable candidate,” he added. “And now he’s on the ballot.”
Much like Chris Christie, the deeply unpopular Biden has become a one-issue candidate with his cranky tirades about saving “democracy” from Trump whom he has characterized as the second coming of Hitler even as his poll numbers continue to plummet with Americans being battered by a prolonged period of high prices.
Whether Axelrod’s call for better messaging includes the pain in the pocketbook that voters are reminded of each and every time they go to the grocery store is unclear but what is clear is that the gaslighting about the miracles of “Bidenomics” isn’t selling with regular people.
He had previously been critical of Biden’s sticking with the ridiculous term that has shown signs of becoming a liability as budgets continue to be battered.
“And they just put out another photo op with the Bidenomics sign next to him … it’s just unbelievable to me,” he said during a December episode of the “Hacks on Tap” podcast which Axelrod hosts with fellow Obama regime alumni Robert Gibbs and political consultant Mike Murphy, exasperated that the White House continues to push the “Bidenomics” snake oil.
Axelrod was also among a number of former aides from Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign who sniped at Biden during a recent meeting in Chicago.
Former Obama aides snipe at Team Biden re-election strategy: Doesn’t ‘have its sh*t together’ https://t.co/wZYToQr3Gl via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) January 15, 2024
“The vibe was that the campaign didn’t have its sh*t together,” said one unnamed Democrat of the mood at the gathering. “There wasn’t infrastructure in the states. There wasn’t a beefed-up campaign headquarters. And compared to where Obama was in 2011, the campaign was fairly anemic.”
“There is a treasure trove of experience in that White House. I mean, one of the issues is it’s all in the White House,” the article quotes Axelrod, seeming to suggest that a shakeup was needed. “Probably some of it should be sitting over at the campaign.”
Some might be inclined to suspect that Axelrod’s remarks are a sign that Mr. Obama is getting antsy over Biden’s horrid poll numbers and the possibility that a Trump return to the White House could see the federal legal machine turned against him now that the precedent has been established.
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