A former official for former President Joe Biden's administration gave a harsh reasoning as to why he's hurting the Democratic Party following recent appearances.
Michael LaRosa, who served as former First Lady Jill Biden's communications director, gave his reaction to the former president reemerging at a protest against President Donald Trump in Chicago on Tuesday (April 15) and later making private remarks at Harvard University's Kennedy School to the Hill on Saturday (April 19).
“I love both Bidens dearly, but staff loyalty means there is a responsibility to provide them with an honest situational awareness, especially when it comes to their public image, no matter how hurtful it is to hear,” LaRosa said.
“If they had advisers who had their hand on the pulse of the Democratic Party or national politics, they would have understood the intense level of anger or indifference to them that remains inside our party and isn’t going away anytime soon,” he added.
“It’s a heartbreaking and tragic ending to their time in public life, but it’s also the truth, and they should index the political realities into their decisionmaking,” LaRosa continued.
LaRosa claimed that any Democratic advisors with a pulse would have been aware that many voters are "furious or indifferent" to Biden. A UMass-Amherst national poll released last Monday (April 14) showed that Trump had a 27% strongly approve rating, which was higher than the 7% for the Democratic Party, though he also had a higher "strongly disapprove" at 44% compared to the Democrats at 40%.
Former Democratic vide presidential candidate Tim Walz also recently admitted that his party's failure to acknowledge former President Joe Biden's decline hurt its chances in the 2024 election.
“He made that decision,” Walz said of Biden continuing to serve before ultimately ending his re-election campaign less than four months prior to the 2024 presidential election during an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who recently wrote a book about Biden's decline, during a live broadcast of State of the Union on April 6.
Walz was among the high profile Democrats to have attempted to downplay Biden's shortcomings after a disastrous performance in the first presidential debate last June.
“Yes, he’s fit for office,” Walz told reporters at the time via the New York Post.
“None of us are denying Thursday night was a bad performance,” he added. “It was a bad get, if you will on that. But it doesn’t impact what I believe — he’s delivering.”
Biden, 82, was the oldest president in American history with Trump, 78, his predecessor and successor, later becoming the oldest candidate to be elected in November.