A senior adviser to former President Joe Biden ripped into the Democratic Party over their “betrayal” in pushing Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
CNN’s Elex Michaelson spoke to Mike Donilon at the Warschaw Conference at USC Center for the Political Future and the footage was first aired on Wednesday on CNN’s The Story Is.
Donilon insisted Biden was the “best candidate” to face President Donald Trump in 2024, despite concerns about the former president’s stamina and age.
“I thought the Democratic Party lost its mind,” Donilon said.
Donilon went on to argue there was a “perception” that Biden couldn’t do the job, but people should not have been concerned about him reaching 86 while in office.
He said:
I thought that Joe Biden was the best candidate. I thought he was the most likely person to be elected president. I thought he’d be the best president. There was a perception about Biden on the last campaign that he couldn’t win. You may not believe it, but it’s true, on the day he got out of the race, he was behind Trump by three points. It’s the first margin of error presidency that was decided to be over in history. Secondly, there was a perception that he couldn’t do the job. And so, you know, there are books written about how he couldn’t do his job. No one can point to a moment in the Biden presidency when he failed to do his job as president.
Donilon said he thought it was “disloyal” for Democratic donors and leaders to push for Biden to drop out after his first debate with Trump.
“I thought I was politically stupid because I think the idea that you can create a campaign in the middle of a summer, a few weeks before a convention and run a nominee was not a smart decision,” he said.
Donilon argued Biden dropped out because his own party created a “circular firing squad” around him.
“I think it was a mistake for the party to have a circular firing squad, that’s what I think,” he said.
Asked for a candidate who could win a general election and be a “successor” to Biden, Donilon pointed to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), saying the “really underrated” politician would have a “really powerful candidacy.”
Watch above via CNN.
The post Biden Senior Adviser Blasts Democrats’ ‘Betrayal’ and ‘Circular Firing Squad’ Against Former President: ‘It Was Disloyal’ first appeared on Mediaite.
