Latest news with #DavidPlouffe
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Warnock dodges questions from NBC host on whether Biden should have dropped out earlier
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., was pressed by NBC News host Kristen Welker on whether former President Joe Biden should have dropped out sooner or run for re-election at all, dodging the question and insisting that he was focused on what's in front of him. Welker quoted former Harris campaign aide David Plouffe, who told authors Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper in their new book that if the former president dropped out in 2023, the Democratic Party could hold a "robust primary." Welker noted that Plouffe name-dropped Warnock as a potential candidate and asked him to respond. "Kristen, here's what we absolutely know about last year's election. It's over, and I'm going to spend all of my energy focused on the tank in front of us. We are headed into a very critical week. The Republicans are trying to push forward this big, ugly bill that's going to literally cut as many as 7 million Americans off of their health care," Warnock said, referring to Trump's "big, beautiful bill." Plouffe told the authors that Biden "f----- us," and said "it was a disservice to the country and to the party for his family and advisers to allow him to run again." Nbc Host Questions Adam Schiff On Whether Biden Officials Mislead The Public About Former President Welker pushed back on Warnock, noting that he didn't give a "direct answer" to her question. Read On The Fox News App "Well, I take very seriously, my job. The people of Georgia hired me to stand up for them, and this really is a critical week. This big, ugly bill is going to strip people of their health care. It's going to rob working-class people of the resources that they need, they're literally trying to take health care from children," Warnock responded. Several Democrats have been asked to respond to questions about the former president's health and whether he should have run for re-election or had dropped out sooner. Democratic leadership, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said \they're trying to look forward and move on. Schumer dismissed the questions surrounding Biden's decline on CNN, MSNBC, and during a press conference in early May. Chuck Schumer Confronted With Old Clip Of Himself Declaring Biden's Decline 'Right-wing Propaganda' Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture "Kasie, we're looking forward. We have the largest Medicaid cut in front of us. We have the whole federal government," Schumer told CNN's Kasie Hunt during. He used the same phrase on MSNBC and during the press conference. Jeffries issued a similar response during a press conference in May, telling reporters, "We're not looking backward, we're looking forward at this particular moment in time." Some Democrats, including former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, acknowledged the former president might have harmed the party's chances by remaining in the race for as long as he did. Buttigieg said that Biden "maybe" hurt Democrats in running for re-election. However, he defended the former president against allegations of article source: Warnock dodges questions from NBC host on whether Biden should have dropped out earlier
Fox News
4 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Warnock dodges questions from NBC host on whether Biden should have dropped out earlier
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., was pressed by NBC News host Kristen Welker on whether former President Joe Biden should have dropped out sooner or run for re-election at all, dodging the question and insisting that he was focused on what's in front of him. Welker quoted former Harris campaign aide David Plouffe, who told authors Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper in their new book that if the former president dropped out in 2023, the Democratic Party could hold a "robust primary." Welker noted that Plouffe name-dropped Warnock as a potential candidate and asked him to respond. "Kristen, here's what we absolutely know about last year's election. It's over, and I'm going to spend all of my energy focused on the tank in front of us. We are headed into a very critical week. The Republicans are trying to push forward this big, ugly bill that's going to literally cut as many as 7 million Americans off of their health care," Warnock said, referring to Trump's "big, beautiful bill." Plouffe told the authors that Biden "f----- us," and said "it was a disservice to the country and to the party for his family and advisers to allow him to run again." Welker pushed back on Warnock, noting that he didn't give a "direct answer" to her question. "Well, I take very seriously, my job. The people of Georgia hired me to stand up for them, and this really is a critical week. This big, ugly bill is going to strip people of their health care. It's going to rob working-class people of the resources that they need, they're literally trying to take health care from children," Warnock responded. Several Democrats have been asked to respond to questions about the former president's health and whether he should have run for re-election or had dropped out sooner. Democratic leadership, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said \they're trying to look forward and move on. Schumer dismissed the questions surrounding Biden's decline on CNN, MSNBC, and during a press conference in early May. "Kasie, we're looking forward. We have the largest Medicaid cut in front of us. We have the whole federal government," Schumer told CNN's Kasie Hunt during. He used the same phrase on MSNBC and during the press conference. Jeffries issued a similar response during a press conference in May, telling reporters, "We're not looking backward, we're looking forward at this particular moment in time." Some Democrats, including former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, acknowledged the former president might have harmed the party's chances by remaining in the race for as long as he did. Buttigieg said that Biden "maybe" hurt Democrats in running for re-election. However, he defended the former president against allegations of decline.
Fox News
27-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Democratic strategists question influence of Obama-era campaign operatives in party's future
Some Democratic strategists are questioning the role campaign operatives — who are associated with former President Barack Obama's presidential campaigns — will play going forward as the Democratic Party scrambles to move forward after former Vice President Kamala Harris' loss. "I'm sorry — I don't want a surgeon who keeps killing patients," Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis told NBC News about the set of Obama-era campaign operatives who contributed to several modern Democratic campaigns. "It's pretty easy to win with a guy like Obama." Several of those who led Obama's campaigns also worked for Harris in 2024, as well as former President Joe Biden, until he dropped out and lost to President Donald Trump. Obama campaign alums Jen O'Malley Dillion and Stephanie Cutter worked on Harris' campaign. Other former Obama campaign aides, Mitch Stewart and Rufus Gifford, worked on Biden's campaign as well, NBC News reported. DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge called out David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager and an advisor to Harris' campaign, in an interview with NBC News earlier this month. Plouffe placed blame for Harris' loss on Biden, telling authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that the former president "totally f----- us." "To blame Biden now is to shift the accountability from the people who lost the race: the consultants, the so-called gurus," Korge said during the interview. "It's time to re-evaluate the use of consultants and bring in new forward-looking people." "The old Obama playbook no longer works," Korge added. Another Democratic strategist, Mike Nellis, told NBC News that the Democratic Party had nostalgia for the Obama era, but noted that the politics have changed. "One of the challenges the Democratic Party does have is that there is nostalgia for the Obama era, both in terms of Barack Obama being in the White House and what that meant for the country and the style of leadership that we have, but also like the style of our politics," Nellis said. "There's been a de-evolution of our politics over the last 10 years, and it's just a very different era." CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURENebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb detailed an anecdote about how she responded to Republican attacks with regard to transgender issues in a mayoral election in Omaha. The Democratic candidate, John Ewing, ended up beating the Republican candidate, Jean Stothert. "I didn't contact the Pod Save America guys or a New York press firm to say, 'how do I handle this?'" Kleeb said. "Our team literally got into the conference room at our state party office and said, 'Let's throw out ideas on how we can push back on this, because we're not going to let them take down John Ewing on this bulls--- again.'" Kleeb added that she wanted all the operatives at the table, and spoke out against "intraparty fighting." Another ex-Obama campaign aide, Steve Schale, defended Plouffe and called him "one of the sharpest guys around." Chuck Rocha, a former Bernie Sanders campaign advisor, pointed out that the campaign consultants are usually locked-in with candidates before they even announce their campaigns. "Most of these same consultants have locked in these candidates before they ever announce, and so there's never any opportunity for any new blood to be a part of these campaigns," Rocha said. "They're all connected." David Hogg, a DNC vice chair, told NBC that the party's political operatives hold on to power for too long, comparing them to several Democratic lawmakers in power. He also said young voters don't really have a memory of Obama's presidency. "I don't think they have one to be honest with you. That's part of the challenge," Hogg said. "For many of these younger people who are under the age of 20, right now… they don't remember much of what Obama talked about. They grew up in the political context of Donald Trump and him being normalized, because that was what politics was to them growing up." After Harris lost, Plouffe, Dillion, Cutter and Quentin Fulks, all part of her campaign operation, joined the co-hosts of Pod Save America, a podcast hosted by all ex-Obama aides, to discuss what went wrong in the election. Liberal critics accused them of gaslighting and taking no accountability for the loss.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Biden destroyed Harris bid by staying in race too long, top adviser says in book
Joe Biden 'totally fucked us' by leaving it too late to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election, a former top campaign aide to Kamala Harris has told the authors of a new book. David Plouffe, who was manager of Barack Obama's winning 2008 campaign and a senior adviser in his White House, was drafted in to help Harris's bid for president after the declining Biden withdrew from the race last summer. Harris's 107-day sprint against Donald Trump was 'a fucking nightmare', Plouffe is quoted as saying by authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson in Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. A copy was obtained by the Guardian. 'And it's all Biden,' Plouffe adds, reflecting on the former US president's decisions to run for re-election and then to cling on for more than three weeks after a catastrophic debate performance against Trump raised questions about his mental acuity and age. 'He totally fucked us.' Plouffe, along with some other former Obama staffers, has previously been critical of Biden and his role in the Democratic defeat. In the wake of Harris's loss he posted a message on X – formerly known as Twitter – that the Harris campaign had begun in a 'deep hole'. He later deleted his account. The book describes how Plouffe had received calls from donors worried about Biden's diminishing energy, cognitive skills and ability to deliver a speech. He in turn pressed the White House and Democratic party if they felt sure that the then president could win another election and was repeatedly told he could. But Tapper, chief Washington correspondent for CNN, and Thompson, a national political correspondent for Axios, spoke to about 200 people for the book, including members of Congress and White House and campaign insiders. Some had been sounding the alarm about Biden's mental acuity and about desperate efforts by his close staff and allies to hide the extent of his deterioration. One senior aide, who quit the White House because they did not think Biden should run, admits to the authors that 'we attempted to shield him from his own staff so many people didn't realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023'. 'I love Joe Biden. When it comes to decency, there are few in politics like him. Still, it was a disservice to the country and to the party for his family and advisers to allow him to run again.' A prominent Democratic strategist says of Biden's determination to seek re-election: 'It was an abomination. He stole an election from the Democratic party; he stole it from the American people.' Original Sin is one of several eagerly awaited books about the 2024 election and an alleged White House conspiracy. Biden, 82, seemingly tried to pre-empt its revelations last week with media appearances on BBC Radio 4's Today program and ABC's talkshow The View. Biden has signed with Creative Artists Agency for representation and hired the communications strategist Chris Meagher to help burnish his public reputation. But the 27 June 2024 debate in Atlanta was no anomaly, the book argues. Since at least 2022 Biden has been increasingly prone to lose his train of thought and struggle to remember the names of top aides. His speeches can be incoherent and difficult to hear. When he proved incapable of delivering a two-minute video address without stumbling, aides filmed him with two cameras so the edit would be less obvious. Original Sin tells how prominent figures tried to intervene in various ways. Obama visited the White House in 2023 and warned Biden: 'Just make sure you can win the race.' Ari Emanuel, a Hollywood powerbroker and significant Democratic donor, yelled at the longtime Biden ally Ron Klain: 'Joe Biden cannot run for re-election! He needs to drop out! He can't win! What's the plan B?' Klain admitted there was no plan B. And Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, confronted the president after the debate last July at his home in Rehoboth, Delaware, and appealed to his desire to preserve his legacy. He warned Biden that, if he stayed in the race and lost to Trump then 50 years of 'amazing, beautiful work goes out the window. But it's worse than that – you will go down in American history as one of the darkest figures.' On their way out, the book reports, Biden put his hands on Schumer's shoulders and told him: 'You have bigger balls than anyone I've ever met.' Biden stepped aside on 21 July and quickly endorsed Harris, but it was too late, the authors contend. He had already helped usher in the fate that he most wanted to avoid: the return of Trump to the White House.
The Independent
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Democrats keep trying to move past the cover up around Biden's decline. It's not helping their credibility
Democrats are not doing themselves any favors with their reactions to the new book on Joe Biden coming out from Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper. The two reporters are due to release Original Sin, a collection of their reporting on the cover up around Biden's mental and physical decline, on May 20. The book's excerpts are already causing a ruckus, as they detail startling instances of Biden's gaps in mental acuity that were reportedly hidden from the public through 2024. Biden, whom aides reportedly considered putting in a wheelchair at points, reportedly did not recognize Hollywood megastar George Clooney at an event the president had flown in to Los Angeles specifically for Clooney to host on his behalf. Other excerpts claimed he forgot the names of longtime aides, including that of his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. The top quote of the week: 'It's all Biden. He totally f***ed us.' David Plouffe's declaration in Original Sin gives voice to the party's furious silent undercurrent of supporters, many of whom did vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 but still watched helplessly on election night as she underperformed nationally and lost ground to Republicans even in deep blue states. The architect of Barack Obama 's 2008 campaign juggernaut, Plouffe's complaint followed an evisceration of the Biden administration policy on Israel / Gaza by the Obamaworld hosts of Pod Save the World. The right, meanwhile, keeps hammering the two reporters and the Washington media at large for the so-called revelations. Arguing that reporters (including from Tapper's network, CNN) led the charge to hide Biden's deficiencies, Republicans argued this week that the two are attempting to cash in on their own failures. They are correct to do so. Democrats (led by Biden's inner circle and a defiant president himself) willingly undermined their own credibility by getting the party into this mess, and should show some capacity for self-reflection — not more breathless attacks on the press — to overcome it. 'I think some of the criticism is fair, to be honest,' said Tapper on Wednesday. Inside Washington claims at least partial innocence here; in February of 2024, we wrote that Biden's age provoked real questions for voters, and that his team 'risk[ed] being seen as trying to conceal something' by ignoring those concerns. But with the imminent release of Tapper and Thompson's book, questions are likely to be raised about just how far back the former president's decline really went. Many Bidenworld loyalists continue to circle the wagons, in true Trumpian fashion. Whether denying the book's revelations outright or chastising reporters falsely for 'focusing' on the issue, the former president and his loyalists continue to insist that they are beyond reproach. "The only reason I got out of the race was because I didn't want to have a divided Democratic Party," he told the hosts of The View this month. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, interviewed this week by CNN 's Kasie Hunt, dodged questions on the issue entirely. MSNBC 's Chuck Todd, who called the criticism of the media a 'right-wing manufactured' narrative, tore into Schumer on a CNN panel. 'He's as responsible as anybody else,' said Todd. 'He was a leader in the party. He could've said something sooner, and he didn't.' The defenses are beginning to become grating to hear even for Democrats, who believe that Biden is doing himself no favors. Steve Schale, who ran the 'Draft Biden' PAC ahead of the 2016 primary, said: 'There is a way for President Biden to build his post-presidency, but this isn't it. 'I really wish he'd embrace the thing that's been his calling card for 50 years: his humanity.' Most importantly: the president's defenders give voters the impression that Democrats are still engaged in deception — at a time when the party's supposed advantages include Donald Trumps' low marks for honesty and integrity. The ex-president was underwater on this issue through the entirety of 2024. The release of Original Sin is going to be the last nail in the coffin, not the first. No one is going to believe the denials now — especially when many of the people making them insisted that there were no problems and that the president wouldn't even consider withdrawing from the race. It's time for Joe to ride off into the sunset. His defenders need to stop lashing out at everyone around them and get back to rebuilding voter trust ahead of the next election cycle.
