‘Not On A Strong Footing’: David Axelrod Spars With Scott Jennings Over Reasons Behind Biden’s Withdrawal
Former President Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and CNN’s senior political commentator Scott Jennings clashed Wednesday evening over how President Joe Biden arrived at his decision to withdraw…
Former President Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and CNN’s senior political commentator Scott Jennings clashed Wednesday evening over how President Joe Biden arrived at his decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.
Axelrod and Jennings appeared on “Anderson Cooper 360” to discuss their reactions to Biden’s first speech following his decision to end his reelection bid for the 2024 race. During the discussion the two panelists got into a debate over how Biden came to the decision as Jennings had called out the pressure Biden received from his own party and political pundits following his poor debate performance.
However, Axelrod had pushed back on Jennings’ comment stating Biden wasn’t “toppled by party bosses,” and asking the senior political commentator to show the president “grace.”
“I think what you’re asking Republicans to do is to overlook a lot of dishonesty that came right out of this White House. They came right out of the vice president. People who worked for him, his family, other Democrats, Democrats in Congress. You‘re asking the country to overlook a lot of dishonesty about Joe Biden‘s abilities, capabilities, his capacity to serve for another four years and so on,” Jennings said.
“Are you talking about Biden or Trump?” Anderson jumped in. “Literally Democrats make the same argument.”
“I‘m talking about Joe Biden. He did arrive at this decision with a little push, not just from the goodness of his own heart, but you have to admit —” Jennings said.
Axelrod then cut off Jennings to state how Biden’s decision was a reflection of how the American voters were feeling, before pivoting to calling out Jennings on his party’s alliance with former President Donald Trump.
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“He concluded that this was a — the party bosses were reflecting the consensus of the American people who made a judgment. But Scott, I mean, there‘s so many Republicans who I talked to who are overlooking far more than this. And they‘ll tell you that about Donald Trump,” Axelrod said.