Obama's Chief Strategist: Biden's Abortion Flip-Flop Could Be Costly Decision
When even Barack Obama’s closest supporters are warning that his former vice president messed up, it might be time to pay attention.
On Thursday, liberal strategist and Obama adviser David Axelrod had harsh words for the current Democratic front-runner. Pointing to presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s recent flip-flop on an important abortion topic, the man who helped elect the first black president essentially called Biden weak on the issues.
That comment came after Biden reversed his decades-long stance on the Hyde Amendment, a provision that prohibits federal funds from financing abortions. It was a pivot that was meant to woo liberal voters, but it may have had the opposite effect.
“Joe Biden, the current front-runner in the Democratic presidential primary, said he supports repealing the Hyde Amendment a day after his campaign said he supported it,” The Washington Examiner reported. “Biden received blowback from fellow Democrats after his campaign signaled that he still supported the amendment.”
Count Axelrod as one Democrat who isn’t impressed by Biden’s odd reversal. During his cable news appearance, the man who played a key role in getting Obama and Biden elected in 2008 and 2012 suggested that it didn’t send a good signal to voters.
“Joe Biden was out on the campaign, and he hasn’t been out that much. And a voter challenged him on the question of Hyde, video was rolling, and he said he would reverse that policy,” Axelrod said.
“The campaign put out a statement and said, ‘No, he still believes in the Hyde Amendment.’ Then there was a furor, and last night he flipped again,” the former Obama adviser continued.
“This underscores questions that people have had about whether he can go the distance,” Axelrod also said. “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.”
Indeed, Biden’s main selling point as a 2020 candidate is that he’s a “return to stability” after the dramatic ups and downs of the Trump era. But if the former vice president can’t even be consistent on key issues, he could find many voters turning their backs on him.
Adding to his critical comments about Biden’s flop, Axelrod went even further by suggesting that the reversal could hurt Biden’s chances in the upcoming election.
“So that was a flip-flop-flip, which is never a good thing in politics,” he said. “And it raises questions about his own performance.”
It’s yet another roadblock for the gaffe-prone Biden, who has already had to deal with a scandal related to his alleged inappropriate behavior around women and girls.
The candidate’s team seemed to be strategically keeping the former vice president on a short leash, but he once again managed to put his foot in his mouth.
This might be the only time we side with an Obama adviser, but Axelrod is right.
What Biden’s flip-flop shows is that he isn’t actually ready for prime-time, despite having the edge when it comes to name recognition.
If a candidate and his own campaign team can’t even stay on the same page, something is broken.
In this case, however, it seems like Biden hadn’t even given the issue much thought, which is odd considering that abortion law is one of the leading topics of 2019.
Whether this gaffe will cause enough voters to truly question Biden remains to be seen. He has had a solid lead in the polls — for whatever that is worth — and may just have enough momentum to secure the nomination after all.
But at this stage in the 2020 race, it sure seems like the worst enemy of Joe Biden … is none other than Joe Biden.
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