Alumni of former President Barack Obama’s administration are expressing growing concern about President Joe Biden’s political struggles surrounding his age.
Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau emphasized that voters already viewed Biden as old, and criticized efforts by the Biden team to dismiss the issue.
Favreau said he personally believed Biden was mentally sharp, but that he often appeared “mummy” on camera.
“When you see Joe Biden speak, he often sounds vulnerable and sounds weaker than he used to, even in 2019 and 2020,” Favreau said on the radio. Pod Save America podcast. “The voice sounds brittle and he shuffles more because of the arthritis in his back.”
US President Barack Obama meets speechwriting director Jon Favreau
Favreau pointed to polls showing as many as 80 percent of Americans expressing concern about Biden’s age, and said it wasn’t just a media-driven afterthought.
“In the last NBC poll, more people were concerned about Biden’s age than Trump’s damn crime rate,” he said.
He argued that Biden needed to appear on camera more to assuage voter concerns about his age.
“When world events seem to overtake him and he doesn’t have a strong enough presence, it worries people,” he said.
Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett agreed, arguing that the Biden team needed to get the president out in public to demonstrate his mental and physical capabilities, even as they worried about the possibility of more mistakes.
“I’m sure going out more means more missteps… more blunders going around, but if you stop looking at the fact that Biden is out there as a net positive, then the argument is he shouldn’t be running.” right,” he said.
Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett
Favreau said Biden needed to start acknowledging concerns about his age, noting that voters could see the visible decline firsthand.
“I think he needs to acknowledge people’s concerns and stop being defensive,” he said, pointing to the president’s angry response to reporters who asked him his age. “The yelling at the media… I don’t think it’s effective.”
Lovett agreed.
“You can’t angrily defend yourself because even if you make a good argument about why you’re ready for the job, you’re also making an argument that you’ve somehow been overtaken by events,” he said. .
Former Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer also expressed concerns about the issue of Biden’s age.
“It’s a very real problem … if Biden can’t calm down especially among his voters from 2020, then I don’t think he can win the election, so it’s in some ways the crux for his campaign,” he said in a interview.
US President Barack Obama and senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer
Pfeiffer said the issue of Biden’s age should be the “first strategic priority” for the president’s campaign, which would spread to all other issues in the campaign.
“There’s a segment of voters who at this point have decided, I think their minds can be changed, who have decided that Joe Biden is too old for the job and can’t do it, so they’re not going to listen. to everything he says,” he said.
Former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod continues to irritate Team Biden by regularly offering strategic advice on podcasts and as a commentator on CNN.
On CNN, he urged Biden and his team to delve into the president’s personality, citing a famous Biden moment from 1979 when he confronted the Soviet Union by telling them “don’t be like that.” ‘
He alluded to recent reports from anonymous sources in the White House talking about Biden’s angry behavior behind the scenes.
Former Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod
He suggested that Biden should embrace his temper and confront Trump directly with “short sentences in Bidenesqe language” in a way that would go viral.
“I would encourage Biden to be Biden,” he said, adding that responding in real time would be a much stronger messaging strategy.
Earlier in February, Axelrod said it was “baffling” that the Biden team would skip the president’s traditional pre-Super Bowl interview on CBS and criticized them for effectively hiding the president.
“Every time he makes a mistake, everyone goes crazy,” he said during one podcast.
Axlerod seemed baffled by the Biden team’s media strategy, musing that “maybe they just don’t have the confidence” to have the president participate in more interviews.
“I think they’re worried something bad is going to happen,” he said.