Axelrod suggests Biden drop out of the 2024 presidential race

Former President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod suggested on Sunday that President Biden should drop out of the 2024 presidential race in the wake of a new poll showing former President Trump in the lead.

Pointing to Poll by the New York Times and Siena College published on Sunday, Axelrod wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “Too late to change horses; A lot will happen next year that no one can predict, and Biden’s team says his decision to run is firm.”

Arguing that Biden is “justifiably proud of his accomplishments,” Axelrod said Biden’s poll numbers will “send tremors of doubt” through the Democratic Party.

Axelrod wrote, “Not ‘wetting the bed,'” but a legitimate concern.

“Trump is a dangerous demagogue and bewildered by his blatant disregard for the rules, [norms]laws and institutions or democracy should be disqualifying”, Axelrod he wrote in a separate post. “But the stakes of a miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore.”

“Only @JoeBiden can make that decision,” it continued. “If he continues to apply, he will be the candidate of the Democratic Party. What he must decide is whether this is wise; either in HIS best interest or the country’s?”

The poll found Biden trailing Trump in five of six battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania by margins of 3 to 10 percentage points among registered voters. In Wisconsin, Biden led by 2 percentage points, according to the poll.

The poll’s findings serve as a major blow to the Biden campaign after the incumbent carried all six states in 2020 when he faced off against Trump. The New York Times reported.

Biden’s re-election campaign has faced growing concerns from voters in his own party over his age and policy actions on a number of issues, particularly the economy.

The poll found that 71 percent of registered voters said they agreed to some extent that Biden is “too old to be an effective president,” while only 39 percent said the same about Trump.

Asked if Biden has the “mental acuity to be an effective president,” 62 percent of respondents said no, while 35 percent agreed with the statement. Meanwhile, 52 percent of respondents said they believe Trump has the mental acuity to be an effective president, while 44 percent said they don’t.

Biden has faced criticism over his age since his 2020 campaign, and that criticism has continued throughout his time in the White House. At 80, Biden is the oldest US president in history.

If re-elected in 2024, he would be 86 at the end of his second term.

Axelrod said Biden’s age is “his biggest liability” and something he can’t change.

“Among all the unpredictable there is one thing that is certain: the arrow of age only points in one direction.” Axelrod wrote about X.

Axelrod’s comments follow a series of calls from some Democrats who have suggested that Biden’s age makes him “too old” to run for re-election next year. The president has argued that it’s fair for voters to talk about his age, but said they should judge him on his ability to do the job.

The New York Times/Siena College poll was conducted among 3,662 registered voters in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from October 22 to November 3, 2023. The margin of sampling error for each state is between 4.4 and 4.8 percentage points. .