A top Republican strategist is criticizing recent campaign decisions former Vice President Joe Biden made.
Speaking with Fox News on Thursday, Karl Rove accused Biden of “surrendering” his policy agenda to politicians who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic nomination process after Biden’s team announced it would onboard New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Biden skeptics to key policy positions.
“Frankly, I don’t know the motivation, I’m mystified,” Rove said. “I think they want to unify the party, but there’s lots of ways to go unifying the party without basically surrendering the description, the drafting if you will, of the presidential candidate’s agenda for the fall campaign in the hands of your adversaries in the primary.”
Rove noted Biden had divided responsibilities in such a way that the most liberal faction of the Democratic Party would have the opportunity to shape Biden’s policy platform.
“He has appointed six committees. Each of them has a co-chair named by Biden and a co-chair named by Bernie. There are three members of each committee that are appointed by Bernie, five by Biden, and … they will discuss the climate, they will discuss environment, education, the economy, immigration, and this seems to me to be an opportunity for the hard Left of the Democratic Party to pressure Joe Biden into endorsing their issues when it comes to things like healthcare rather than what he sort of suggested he was, which was more of a traditional Democrat.”
Rove referenced Ocasio-Cortez, in particular, claiming her inclusion in Biden’s team is representative of a tight rope that the former senator will have to walk if he wants to appeal to both moderate and far-left Democrats.
“AOC, who’s the co-chair of the climate committee, said that before she accepted the appointment, she talked with the social justice movement, and she’ll be … responsive to them, you know, that doesn’t seem like much of a team player,” Rove said. “I think he’s buying himself some trouble here. He either alienates the left of his party, or he appears to go too left and alienates the suburbanites who I think are going to be key to his victory.”
On May 14, Ocasio-Cortez was appointed as co-chair to Biden’s task force on climate change.
