Ex-aides to President Obama have been among the loudest voices in the fiery Democratic debate over whether President Biden should withdraw from the presidential race.
David Axelrod, Obama’s former senior adviser, has repeatedly cast doubts about Biden’s chances, saying this week that Biden is losing the race and “really needs to consider what the right thing to do here is.”
The former Obama aides who host the popular “Pod Save America” podcast have also publicly voiced concerns about Biden’s ability to defeat former President Trump.
“You know what would’ve been really helpful in the effort to beat Trump and stop Project 2025? If the Democratic nominee had mentioned it even once during the debate that 50 million Americans watched or his ABC interview that 8 million Americans watched,” Jon Favreau, a former chief speechwriter for Obama, wrote Monday on the social platform X, referring to the Heritage Action policy plan prepared for a new Trump government.
David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager in 2008, described the hours after Biden’s bad debate performance against Trump as “kind of a DEFCON 1 moment” for Democrats.
Jen Psaki, Biden’s first White House press secretary who served Obama for much of his administration, also told viewers of her MSNBC show Monday evening that “there are legitimate questions in this moment and it isn’t only rich donors and coastal elites who are asking them.”
“I worked for him. I respect him and I care about him deeply,” Psaki acknowledged. “But if I sat here every night and told you that every question being asked out there is unfair, I wouldn’t be respecting you. So I’m not going to do that.”
There have long been tensions between some of Obama’s officials and Biden, but the ex-aides have rarely spoken as critically of the current Democratic president as in the last 12 days.
One former Obama aide said those doing so have the best intentions at heart and are honestly worried about the prospect of a new Trump administration. They are speaking “for the greater good, with the intention of saving our democracy,” as one former aide put it.
Read more at Thehill.com
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