Allies of President Biden are stepping up calls for Democrats to rally around the president following negative commentary and splits from inside the party over whether he should forgo reelection.
Former President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod has been the most notable Democrat to cause a ruckus when he suggested earlier this month that Biden step aside and further advised that the president has a “50-50 shot” of winning in 2024.
But some Democrats say comments like Axelrod’s aren’t helping especially as Biden continues to face poor polling numbers, encouraging the party to instead coalesce around the president to give him a boost.
“We gotta pipe down the moaning and groaning and all the whining. There’s too much of that,” said former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), a onetime House Democratic Caucus chair. “I think that leaches into the psyche of the voters as well. That’s got to stop and I think at that point, you’ll start to see Biden’s numbers improve, certainly amongst Democrats, but I think voter-wide they’ll start to improve.”
Steve Elmendorf, deputy campaign manager for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential run, said that there are clear challenges with Biden’s reelection campaign but Democrats complaining doesn’t help.
“I’m not like, oh everything they do is great over there. Obviously, they need to constantly refine the message and figure out what works and there are challenges with various groups of voters and they need to figure those out. But I don’t think it’s helpful as a party for people to sort of run around publicly and complain.”
The calls for Democrats to cut down on the negativity comes as Biden has been hit with a slew of bad polls in recent months. Former President Trump’s lead over Biden is also growing in a hypothetical 2024 match-up, with Trump receiving 48 percent support compared to Biden’s 41 percent, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey.
That followed a New York Times and Siena College poll earlier this month that found Trump leading Biden in critical battleground states. But some say Biden has plenty of time to make up for his shortfalls.
“You have to be concerned, but you also have to take it with the understanding that a year of politics, especially in an election, is a lifetime,” former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said. “Things just change dramatically over that time. We don’t know what the next 12 months will entail. Is it concerning? Of course, but there’s plenty of time for circumstances to change.”
When asked if it’s frustrating when people within his own party say negative things or suggest the president should consider moving aside, Daschle, founder of the Daschle Group, said “it’s not frustrating, it’s understandable.”
“Obviously, they have a point,” he said. “In spite of the debate that we’ve had now for several months about age and about options, I think we have to acknowledge that it’s absolutely critical that we come together and we be as cohesive as possible over the next 12 months. And I know that’s not easy. But it’s essential if we’re going to succeed.”
Democrats for months have questioned if Biden is too old to run for reelection or if he has the stamina and mental and physical capacity to do so. Senate Democrats are also now pushing back hard on criticism from within their own party, dismissing concerns about Biden’s electability as counterproductive.
“He’s running for reelection, people need to understand that and so as a party, everybody should figure out how do we get him reelected. Like, that’s pretty simple. I’m in the Jim Messina, David Plouffe school of, people need to stop bedwetting and focus on how to win,” Elmendorf said.
Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, has been an advocate for Biden on social media, posting on X this week, “Polls a year out are about as good at predicting election results as a magic 8 ball would be.” Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, has long warned against Democrats ‘bedwetting’ and worrying about political outcomes.
But then there’s Axelrod, from Obama world, who said this week that Biden has a “50-50 shot” of winning in 2024, adding, “He thinks he can cheat nature here, and it’s really risky.” He had earlier suggested Biden step aside, although he also touted that the Biden administration has done great things.
Axelrod’s suggestion that Biden consider stepping aside broke open some lingering tensions between the Biden and Obama teams, which Democrats say doesn’t do them any favors. There’s also the matter of how different the current political environment is.
“A lot of the people who comment on campaigns these days are sort of living in past campaigns. We’re in a very different way in which campaigns are run, in which people communicate, in which money is raised and money is spent,” Elmendorf said.
“No offense to a lot of my friends who’ve worked on past campaigns, but I think a lot of them are probably … not as up to date and they probably don’t have as much information,” he added.
Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez has acknowledged that the general election will be “very close” as Biden aides lean into attacks on Trump, ramping up the offensive by rolling out daily memos that outline what a second term would mean for issues like the economy, abortion and immigration. They’ve also reiterated a notion Biden often touts: that he’s the only candidate who can beat Trump. There’s also the matter of, if Biden steps down, who could possibly take his place.
“Joe Biden has done it. Who would you put in his place? If David Axelrod says he has a 50-50 chance maybe, who has more than a 50-50 chance? Name the person,” MSNBC’s “Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said Tuesday. “Someone name a name that we know has more than a 50-50. There isn’t one.”
Biden also faces some primary challengers, including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips (D) and author Marianne Williamson. Meanwhile, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been polling with a high favorability in recent surveys, which some find problematic.
“I’m not like sanguine, or like, oh, Joe Biden’s gonna win. I think we’re an extremely competitive, divided country. These third party people are very concerning,” Elmendorf said, mentioning Green Party Ralph Nader’s impact in the 2000 election.
Yasmin Nelson, a senior policy adviser at Holland & Knight and former senior policy adviser to Vice President Harris when she served in the Senate, said despite the noise, Democrats have to stay focused on the ticket they have.
“Biden-Harris is the ticket, and it’s not in Democrats best interest to entertain anything other than that. The campaign has a year to show voters the difference they’ve made and the significant legislative success over the first term, amidst extreme odds,” Nelson said. “They have to remind voters of that fight daily and build the brand around that success.”
Daschle also called for unity in the face of Biden’s primary challengers and for Biden allies to stay engaged over the next year.
“The only way we can ensure that we won’t fail is if we stay as unified and as aggressively engaged as we possibly can. And that seems to me to be the simple truth that the sooner we all recognize and acknowledge the better,” he said.