CNN anchor John King accused 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden of “sometimes” implementing the “it’s my turn” to get the party nomination motto during his show Wednesday.
King made the comment while he and panel discussed Biden’s lackluster performance thus far in his campaign and how he’s done when combating criticism from fellow candidates. They also noted that his poll numbers have dropped over the last couple of months.
“When he has come under scrutiny a lot by his democratic challengers, he hasn’t been very sharp in his responses, particularly in the debate. He cut himself off when he was trying to respond to Kamala Harris, which I don’t think was his best moment,” Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post stated. “[He] got really testy with Sen. Cory Booker, when Booker called him to apologize, and he also took some time, I believe it was 18 or 19 days, to actually apologize for his comments on working well with segregationist senators.”
Kim pointed multiple examples in which Biden had an opportunity to hit back strong against his opponents only to suffer in the polls and in the press for how he handled the situation.
King responded, “I’ve been around a while. The ‘it’s my turn’ argument doesn’t work in Democratic primaries like it used to work and didn’t work in the 2016 in the Republican primary, mind you. I don’t think it works at all anymore. Joe Biden sometimes seems like he’s Bob Dole saying, ‘It’s my turn.’ Ask Hillary Clinton 2007, 2008, and ask Hillary Clinton almost 2016 when Sen. Sanders came a lot closer than anybody thought he could. It’s not the way the Democratic primary electorate works.”
“People didn’t like that sense from Hillary Clinton in ‘08, in ‘16. And I think when you’re in these early states, I’ve been in Iowa recently, those voters, they want to kick the tires of all these candidates. They don’t like the idea of any kind of coronation,” Catherine Lucey of the Wall Street Journal added.
