“Pod Save America” host Jon Favreau slammed President Joe Biden’s decision to run for a second presidential term on a Friday episode analyzing Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to GOP President-elect Donald Trump.
“Joe Biden’s decision to run for president again was a catastrophic mistake,” the podcaster and former speechwriter for President Barack Obama said. “It just was.”
Favreau accused Biden and “his inner circle” of refusing to believe polls indicating that the president was unpopular, and of failing to take the public’s concerns about the economy seriously.
“They just kept telling us that his presidency was historic and it was the greatest economy ever,” he said.
He added, “Clearly, 70, 80 percent of voters don’t believe that. They don’t believe that about their own personal financial situation, but they just keep telling us that.”
Elsewhere in the episode, the hosts of the hit political podcast commented on the difficulty that Harris faced as the eventual Democratic nominee after Biden stepped down in July —timing that left her with around 100 days to mount a campaign.
Democracy In The Balance
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Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also laid blame on Biden in an interview with The New York Times published on Saturday. She criticized the president not only for not dropping out earlier, but for immediately endorsing Harris and thus making it “almost impossible” to hold an open primary for his replacement.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” said Pelosi. Harris would’ve still won that primary, the former House Speaker maintained, but “may have been stronger, having taken her case to the public sooner.”