Joe Biden is trying to 'run out the clock' so that time gets too short to make a change, former Obama advisor says
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Joe Raedle/Getty Images
- President Joe Biden is trying to "run out the clock," a former Obama advisor told CNN.
- David Axelrod said that after the NATO summit and GOP convention, time gets too short to make a change.
- Biden has come out forcefully against calls for him to step aside following last month's debate.
President Joe Biden is trying to "run out the clock" so that time becomes too short to make a change, a former Obama advisor said in an interview with CNN.
"I do think he is trying to run out the clock," David Axelrod told the outlet on Monday, citing an upcoming NATO summit in Washington, DC, as well as next week's Republican convention.
"And then time gets very short if you were to make a change," he said.
Biden has been under considerable pressure to exit the presidential race following his disastrous debate performance on June 27.
But he's come out forcefully against any suggestions that he should drop out.
In an ABC News interview released on Friday, Biden said only God might convince him to drop out of the race.
And in a call with MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday, he said he was "not going anywhere" and goaded Democrats who wanted to push him aside.
Biden also sent a letter to Democratic members of both chambers, telling them to end questions about how to move forward, saying: "I am firmly committed to staying in this race."
Axelrod described the letter to CNN as "pretty dismissive," with no "real acknowledgment of the concerns or addressing of the concerns" brought up by Democrats.
Axelrod told CNN on Sunday that Biden was "dangerously out of touch" with the ground sentiment and was "not winning this race" against former President Donald Trump.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to start on August 19, leaving Democrats just over five weeks to pick a new nominee, if they choose to try to force Biden out.
It's not too late for Democrats to pick another candidate, although the precedent isn't one they will look at favorably.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out of the race in 1968, his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, entered the Democratic primary, won the nomination, but went on to lose the election to former Vice President Richard Nixon.
According to Reuters, if Biden stepped down after the Democratic convention, the 435 members of the Democratic National Committee would then need to select a new candidate.
Growing calls for Biden to end his bid for reelection have worried some in the Republican Party.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and longtime Trump ally, told CBS' "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" Sunday that a new Democratic challenger would make the race "dramatically different" for Trump.