Obama Insider David Axelrod Calls Out Biden's 'Flip-Flop-Flip,' Questions His Campaign
After 40-plus years of supporting the Hyde Amendment, Joe Biden reversed course this week and threw support behind government-funded abortion — the result of mass backlash from 2020 Democratic presidential primary opponents.
CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod did not mince words about the former vice president’s overnight change of heart on Hyde.
In an appearance on the network’s “New Day,” the ex-chief campaign strategist to Barack Obama told hosts Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota that Biden’s “flip-flop-flip” on the abortion law “underscores questions” about whether the Democratic front-runner’s campaign has the legs to survive the primary.
“I think that this was a parable about Biden that goes to question marks about his candidacy,” Axelrod said.
Axelrod credited Biden’s efforts out of the gate, saying that his entrance — which set him apart as the sole front-runner in a field of more than 20 candidates and sees him with 30-plus percent of the vote in most primary polls — was “flawless.”
But he also indicated that controversies like this may spell trouble for Biden in the long-run, particularly with roughly eight months until the first primary ballot is cast.
“His rollout was flawless, in my view, and he’s had a very solid spring,” he said. “But this underscores questions that people have had about whether he can go the distance.”
Questions about Biden’s support for Hyde at a campaign event Tuesday in New Hampshire when he threw support behind Roe v. Wade, reported NBC, but his campaign assured news outlets that the candidate did support the Medicaid amendment.
Those statements, however, garnered near immediate backlash from both Planned Parenthood and the wide array of challengers Biden faces in the Democratic primary.
Biden then made an overnight about-face, claiming that he could no longer “justify” supporting a law that shuts off “health care” to American women.
Axelrod said inconsistencies on issues of this nature are likely to be a problem for just about any candidate with a political career longer than a couple decades.
And Biden’s career has lasted more than four decades — 45 years and counting.
Axelrod said that “being a figure of stability has the flip side that you have to defend positions that you’ve had over the course of 45 years in politics, some of which may have been acceptable in the day and not acceptable now.”
“We see that on this issue of the Hyde Amendment.”
Axelrod also cited age as a factor.
The former political strategist said inconsistencies and flip-flops on the campaign trail will serve only to shake Biden’s air of “stability” and lead to additional concerns.
“Here is the issue with Biden,” Axelrod said. “People don’t like to approach it, but he’s 76 years old, he would be 78 when he became president — and that would be eight years older than the oldest president who has ever taken office, which is Donald Trump.”
“There are questions about that. If you are unsteady on the campaign trail, that is going to intensify those questions.
“This is one reason I think they’ve kept him on a relatively leisurely pace on the campaign trail and away from some of the major events and away from reporters, frankly.”
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