White House rejects calls for Biden to abandon re-election bid due to age
The White House categorically denies that there is anxiety in the circle of US Democratic President Joe Biden due to his low ratings among fellow citizens, and in fact rejects calls addressed to the American leader to consider abandoning his attempt for re-election to the highest government post.
Speaking on November 20 at a regular briefing for journalists, the press secretary of the head of the American administration, Karine Jean-Pierre, avoided a direct answer to a request to say how Biden’s advisers react to the statements of one of the key political strategists of the US Democratic Party, David Axelrod, regarding the course of the election campaign. Over the past few days, Axelrod has been publicly speaking out, in fact, in favor of Biden leaving the election race due to his advanced age, insisting that a younger generation of political figures come to the forefront of the Democrats. Biden turned 81 on November 20, making him the oldest head of state in American history.
“It’s not about age”
“I certainly won’t make comments in response to the words of every person who has something to say. <...> They are not sounding the alarm behind the scenes,” Jean-Pierre assured, speaking about Axelrod’s calls and the disappointing results of new opinion polls in the United States for Biden.
“In our opinion, it’s not the age, but the experience of the president. That’s how we think,” the press secretary said.
“He (Biden – TASS) is able to cope with numerous foreign policy challenges. He is able to do this. And this is thanks to his experience,” said the White House official representative.
“I would not hesitate to bet on the president’s endurance, his wisdom, his ability to achieve his goals for the benefit of the American people, choosing between him and anyone, anyone (his potential opponent in the upcoming election),” Jean-Pierre said.
Opinion of a political scientist
In an interview with the newspaper published on November 18 The New York Times Axelrod estimated Biden’s chances of winning the upcoming US presidential election in a year at no more than 50%, “possibly (even) less.”
From the point of view of Axelrod, who played a key role in the election campaigns of the 44th US President Barack Obama, was one of his closest aides and is considered one of the most authoritative political strategists of the Democrats, Biden and his entourage are actually trying to “deceive nature, and this is very risky.” .
He believes that “they have a real problem if they expect to win (the next election) at the expense of (likely Republican presidential candidate Donald) Trump,” and in this regard recalled that Democratic US presidents in the 2016 elections and Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump, “acted the same way.”
In the same New York Times article, prepared by columnist Maureen Dowd, it was reported that Axelrod took it philosophically that Biden reacted with anger to the reasoning of the architect of victories, Democrat Obama. Biden, as stated in the newspaper article Politico dated November 13, spoke personally about Axelrod in light of the latter’s statements on the topic of elections in almost obscene terms. Axelrod, back on November 5, on a page on the social network X (formerly Twitter), wondered whether Biden should continue to fight for re-election and whether this was in the interests of the country.
According to Axelrod, he takes no offense to the characterization he received from Biden. At the same time, he expressed hope that the president and his entourage “do not believe that opinion polls are incorrect, because they are not.”
Comfortable shoes and coconut cake
As Politico’s Nov. 19 article highlighted, prominent Biden supporters and key Democratic Party donors have “deep concerns” that Biden’s campaign may have taken inappropriate approaches to addressing negative perceptions of his age among his fellow Americans.
The same article specified that “persons close to the president” discussed the possibility of ensuring that he had to “walk shorter distances” in public, his abandonment of suit shoes in favor of “more comfortable” shoes, including in order to “reduce risk of falls.” The article noted that “for some Democrats, the Biden team is too casual in dismissing the idea that the president’s age could hurt him in the election.”
Jean-Pierre on November 20 initially simply rejected recent ratings indicating that Biden was failing to win the support of a majority of voters. However, she then recalled that both Democratic presidents Obama and Bill Clinton were in a similar situation at one time, were, according to the results of opinion polls, doomed to defeat, and then achieved re-election, contrary to forecasts.
“So there’s nothing unusual about this,” says a White House spokesman.
She also answered a question about how Biden intends to celebrate his birthday.
“There is a tradition. They will adhere to this tradition. That is, they will be able to celebrate the president’s birthday with their family on Nantucket later this week. And they will, of course, celebrate with coconut cake, as they traditionally do,” Jean-Pierre said.
Nantucket is an island off the coast of Massachusetts in the Atlantic Ocean, which is one of the most popular resorts in the United States. Biden and his family are expected to travel there on November 21.
Source: Rambler
