ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith accused Democrats on Monday of destroying their credibility by misleading Americans about former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity.
The Democratic Party’s favorability has plummeted to an all-time low of 29% after former Vice President Kamala Harris’ resounding loss to President Donald Trump in November following the party’s jettisoning of Biden from the presidential ticket. While discussing the poll on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith argued that Democrats must cater their messaging to Americans’ priorities rather than lecturing them due to losing voters’ faith by insisting Biden was fit for another term after exhibiting signs that he was not.
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“You got to be about preaching about what’s important to the American people and what they care about instead of telling them what they should care about. You know why you can’t make that argument anymore? Because you had your chance,” Smith said. “You had President Biden up in that office. You knew he wasn’t the same. You knew there was shrinkage that kicked in mentally. You knew that people were talking about him being incapacitated. This was before the debate on June 27th. You knew it. You knew it. You knew it.”
Journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his Oct. 2024 book “War” that concerns over Biden’s cognitive abilities began surfacing among Democratic donors during fundraising events as early as June 2023, a year before the former president’s disastrous debate performance against Trump. Yet Democrats chanted, “Four more years!” during Biden’s March 2024 state of the union address.
Academy Award-winning actor George Clooney also called for Democrats to replace Biden as their presidential nominee in a New York Times op-ed published on July 10. He had hosted a fundraiser for the president just three weeks prior and wrote that the Biden he witnessed at event was identical to what he observed during the debate.
“And they got you on camera chanting for four more years for a dude that was approaching 82 years of age, that would have been in office until he was 86, assuming he got there,” he continued. “You didn’t even think he was going to make it, and God bless him, I hope he does. But what you did was say, ‘Let’s just get him through the election because the rest of us is running the government anyway.’ The trust of the American people were compromised.”
Biden himself acknowledged in a USA Today interview in January that he was uncertain whether he could have completed another term in office.
“I also wasn’t looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old. And so I did talk about passing the baton,” Biden said in the interview. “But I don’t know. Who the hell knows? So far, so good. But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”
Even after replacing Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee in July, Harris denied Biden exhibited any cognitive issues.
In addition to the CNN poll, only 27% of registered voters had a positive perception of the Democratic Party, according to an NBC News poll published on Sunday, a record low in the outlet’s polling since 1990, it reported. Moreover, 55% of registered voters held a negative perception of the Democratic Party.
Unlike Smith, former MSNBC host Chris Matthews and “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski asserted Monday that unchecked falsehoods from Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk were to blame for Democrats falling out of favor with Americans.
“Nobody checks the facts anymore,” Matthews claimed. “And the lies are getting through to the American people.”
Brzezinski agreed, adding, “I do think there should be a war room, a central command and a person, a voice, a figure who can call out the disinformation.”
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