President Barack Obama’s chief strategist in his successful 2008 and 2012 campaigns said Joe Biden’s reversal on abortion could cost him the party’s nomination.
“This underscores questions that people have had about whether he can go the distance,” David Axelrod said on CNN. “The virtue of having a long record and comforting people and being a figure of stability has the flip side that you have to defend positions that you’ve had over the course of 45 years in politics.”
The former vice president sent shock waves through the race late Thursday when he told Democratic donors in Atlanta he no longer supports the Hyde Amendment, a provision of federal law approved each year since 1976 that bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion.
“I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need,” Biden said.
Axelrod, who worked closely with Biden in the White House, said Biden’s switch on a key social issue shows his weakness. “Some [positions] may have been acceptable in the day and not acceptable now,” he said.
In recent weeks, several Republican-led states have passed restrictive abortion laws, many of which were designed with the intent of being challenged in court. The goal is to get Roe v. Wade overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Liberal Democrats challenging Biden have used the Hyde Amendment to paint Biden as more aligned with Republicans on abortion. “We do not pass laws that take away that freedom from the women who are most vulnerable,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said of the amendment and Biden’s support.
