Former President Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod said that Joe Biden’s campaign seems to be trying to protect him from making gaffes or appearing to be too old for the presidency.
Axelrod told the New York Times that he thought the campaign’s strategy of insulating Biden from the press and holding back the famously garrulous former vice president from making any controversial remarks has worked so far, but said the campaign will have to pivot to allow him to be “more venturesome” with his remarks and appearances.
“I think they’ve been really, really adroit in the early going,” Axelrod said. “Clearly, they’re trying to do enough to show the flag but not so much that it exposes him to either mistakes or fatigue. But the pace is going to quicken as the race goes on and you can’t keep him in candidate protection program.”
“One of the tests for a guy who’s 76 years old is, ‘Can he handle this?’” Axelrod said, of Biden needing to be more out in the open and visible on the campaign trail.
The 76-year-old has a history of gaffes and actions that have faced criticism. Multiple women have accused him of being too touchy with them, evoking criticism from some #MeToo activists. He later joked about the criticism.
The Washington Examiner reported that a month after the 1988 presidential election, Biden joked about the infamous “Willie Horton” ad, which was widely seen as racist. Biden also referred former segregationist Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond “one of my closest friends.”
Biden has a wide lead in the polls among the more than 20 candidates running for the Democratic nomination. A RealClearPolitics national average of polls has Biden at 41.4% support.
