Latest news with #DavidAxelrod
CNN
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
David Axelrod: To be a big-tent party, Democrats have to make room for Zohran Mamdani's ideas
Long-time Democratic strategist David Axelrod talks about new polling showing Trump's megabill he just signed into law is unpopular with many voters. He also tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer how he thinks Democrats should handle controversial New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Democratic strategist points finger of blame at one person over Epstein list debacle, and it's not Pam Bondi
Democratic strategist David Axelrod has implied that President Trump is the person pulling the strings over the release of files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 'I've said this from the start: Anyone who thinks Pam Bondi decided on her own to do a 180 and inflame MAGA on the Epstein file release hasn't been paying attention,' Axelrod said Sunday night in a statement on X. 'There's only one guy who could have ordered it–and had a motive to–but it's sacrilege on the Right to say it!' he added. The former senior adviser to Barack Obama, who regularly criticizes the GOP, has also been highly critical of his own party regarding voter disillusionment following Trump's landslide victory in 2024. Following the leak of the FBI and Department of Justice memo last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi has come under intense scrutiny from both sides after the document claimed there was 'no incriminating client list' found in the investigation into the disgraced financier. Several MAGA figures have expressed feeling betrayed by Trump's campaign pledge to 'release the Epstein files' after last week's news and have fumed over their frustrations with the President across the media. Far-right commentator and Trump supporter, Laura Loomer, slammed Bondi, suggesting that she was more interested in being a 'Fox News Barbie' than succeeding in her role as attorney general. Megyn Kelly also condemned Bondi at a conservative conference this weekend, telling the audience: "She has never missed an opportunity to go on television and dangle sweet nothings that might be coming your way, try to lead you to believe that she's got it. "Pam Bondi was either telling the truth then, or she's telling the truth now, but both cannot be true," she added. Taking to Truth Social Saturday, Trump leapt to defend Bondi for doing a 'fantastic' job writing, 'What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals?' They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening. 'We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,' Trump wrote on Truth. Last week, a rumor also surfaced, suggesting that FBI chief Kash Patel was stepping down in the wake of the furore. He has since torched the speculation, writing that 'the conspiracy theories just aren't true, never have been,' and said it is 'an honor to serve the President of the United States @realDonaldTrump — and I'll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me.'
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Philip Cross: Democrats' Biden lie will haunt them for years
Traumatized by a decisive loss to Donald Trump in last November's presidential election and unable to capitalize on Trump's mishandling of the economy and erratic foreign policy, the Democratic Party, the world's oldest active political party, is in a shambles. Its troubles are largely self-inflicted, according to two new books on Joe Biden's doomed re-election bid: Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again and Chris Whipple's Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History. Biden's physical and mental deterioration had long been evident but was masked by luck and a loyal inner circle. COVID restrictions during the 2020 campaign allowed his advisors to minimize his public appearances and gloss over his missteps. His decline clearly accelerated while in office but it was covered up by ploys such as a reduced schedule, fewer interviews and the use of teleprompters even for routine public speaking. Biden's doctor was complicit, never administering even simple tests of cognitive ability and not collecting basic health data for a man his age: Biden's prostate cancer could and should have been diagnosed years before it metastasized. People outside Biden's inner circle were routinely appalled by what they saw. David Axelrod, chief strategist in both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns and senior advisor to Obama in his first term, went on record opposing Biden's running again because of his growing infirmity. Special Counsel Robert Hur recommended not charging Biden for mishandling confidential documents because he believed a jury would not convict 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' Instead of seizing on Hur's report to question why Biden so scrupulously avoided interviews and press conferences the mainstream press mainly attacked the messenger. Shielding Biden from outside scrutiny likely backfired, however, by helping reinforce his decline. As one former high-ranking Biden aide told Whipple, seeing fewer people 'allowed his faculties to atrophy. But I think, like knives, they have to be sharpened. They get sharpened by rubbing them up against steel. And they don't get sharpened by sitting in the drawer.' George Orwell wrote that 'we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.' The battlefield that fully revealed Biden's unfitness for the presidency was last June's debate with Trump. Whipple underlines how the terms of the debate favoured Biden. The host network was CNN, which is Democrat-friendly CNN (with Jake Tapper as one of the moderators). There was no audience and therefore no audience feedback for Trump to play to or to help fine-tune his messaging. And microphones were muted to prevent a repeat of Trump's incessant interruptions in the 2020 debates. Despite all this, just 12 minutes in, after Biden made his infamous and incoherent claim that 'we finally beat Medicare,' Tapper's co-anchor, Dana Bash, passed him a note reading: 'he just lost the election.' Still denying the obvious, however, Biden, his family and his close advisors circled the wagons, dismissing his performance as just a bad debate, an explanation first offered by then vice-president Kamala Harris in an immediate post-debate interview. But Biden's obvious inability to campaign or govern effectively, now unmistakably revealed, soon led moderate Democrats to search for another candidate. It is revealing that two main groups still resisted Biden's stepping down. One band of loyalists consisted of his aides, who needed Biden to remain as a figurehead so they could continue to exercise power. The other, ironically, was the Democratic Party's progressive wing, led by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which strongly supported Biden's implementation of its collectivist agenda — despite Biden having defeated his more left-wing rivals for the 2020 Democratic nomination by stressing his own moderation. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi were finally able to pierce the protective wall around Biden and convince him to withdraw by presenting polls showing he had less than a five per cent chance of winning. It is unclear if Biden's 28-day delay in withdrawing cost the Democrats the election. Even if he had dropped out in June, cramming a full slate of primaries into the few weeks that would have remained before the Democratic convention was not feasible. Virtually by default, therefore, Harris became the nominee and, for a few weeks, sparked hopes of salvaging the election. But she severely hurt her chance of being elected by refusing to distance herself from Biden's unpopular policies — a failure not lost on our own Mark Carney, who, taking over from a leader who had also lost all credibility with the public, quickly disavowed Justin Trudeau's legacy. Harris, however, when asked 'would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?' replied 'there is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of — and I've been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.' She thereby handed over the mantle of change to Donald Trump. Philip Cross: We need to repatriate our energy export data Philip Cross: Carney's stellar CV does not guarantee success By lying about Biden's fitness to govern, Democratic leaders were guilty of trying to hide from the American people the obvious truth that he was no longer mentally and physically competent to stay on as president, never mind serve another term. It will take years for many Americans to again trust that Democrats have the nation's and not their own interest at heart — the very sin they accuse Trump of committing. Philip Cross is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Axelrod on RFK Jr.'s vaccine moves: ‘Genuine catastrophe in the making'
Democratic political strategist David Axelrod on Friday condemned changes Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made to a key vaccine advisory committee. Kennedy earlier this week fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with eight of his own picks, a significant downsizing for the independent, expert panel that provides guidance on vaccine recommendations. Some of the eight are known for spreading vaccine misinformation. 'This is a genuine catastrophe in the making,' Axelrod said in a post on the social platform X. 'Vaccines have eradicated diseases that ravaged mankind since the beginning of recorded history. Now one twisted ideologue in a position of power threatens to take us backward. God help us all!' he added. Kennedy has lauded the new ACIP appointees as a team of educated and capable advisers. 'The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America's most accomplished physicians. All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,' he wrote in a post on X. The new members are set to meet June 25 to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine in addition to reviewing safety and efficacy data for the current immunization schedule. Kennedy has frequently promoted vaccine misinformation prior to taking on his Cabinet role and recently ended the CDC's recommendation that pregnant people and healthy children receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Critics have railed against the secretary for rushing to usher in a new standard for vaccines post-pandemic amid a nationwide measles outbreak. 'These actions collectively restrict access to a vital tool for saving lives and undermine confidence in our health systems,' former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who served in the Trump administration from 2017-21, wrote in an op-ed published by Time. 'The major flaw in the new vaccine framework is its narrow assessment of risk. Although the immediate dangers of COVID-19 have lessened, it remains a leading cause of death and hospitalization, claiming nearly 50,000 lives in the U.S. in 2024 — more than breast cancer or car accidents,' he added. Kennedy himself said his views on vaccines were 'irrelevant' while testifying at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 14. 'I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive, but I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me,' he told lawmakers, after being asked whether he would vaccinate his own children today against measles. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
13-06-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Axelrod on RFK Jr.'s vaccine moves: ‘Genuine catastrophe in the making'
Democratic political strategist David Axelrod on Friday condemned changes Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made to a key vaccine advisory committee. Kennedy earlier this week fired all 17 members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with eight of his own picks, a significant downsizing for the independent, expert panel that provides guidance on vaccine recommendations. Some of the eight are known for spreading vaccine misinformation. 'This is a genuine catastrophe in the making,' Axelrod said in a post on X. 'Vaccines have eradicated diseases that ravaged mankind since the beginning of recorded history. Now one twisted ideologue in a position of power threatens to take us backward. God help us all!' he added. Kennedy has lauded the new ACIP appointees as a team educated and capable advisors. 'The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America's most accomplished physicians. All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,' he wrote in a post on X. The new members are set to meet on June 25 to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine in addition to reviewing safety and efficacy data for the current immunization schedule. Kennedy has frequently promoted vaccine misinformation prior to taking on his Cabinet role and recently ended the CDC's recommendation that pregnant women and healthy children receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Critics have railed against the secretary for rushing to usher in a new standard for vaccines post-pandemic amid a nationwide measles outbreak. 'These actions collectively restrict access to a vital tool for saving lives and undermine confidence in our health systems,' former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who served in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, wrote in an op-ed published by Time. 'The major flaw in the new vaccine framework is its narrow assessment of risk. Although the immediate dangers of COVID-19 have lessened, it remains a leading cause of death and hospitalization, claiming nearly 50,000 lives in the U.S. in 2024 — more than breast cancer or car accidents,' he added. Kennedy himself said his views on vaccines were 'irrelevant,' while testifying at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 14. 'I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive, but I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me,' he told lawmakers, after being asked whether he would vaccinate his own children today against measles.
