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Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau said Friday on the “Pod Save America” podcast that President Biden’s decision to run again was a “catastrophic mistake,” and took aim at the Biden-Harris campaign’s messaging throughout the race.
“Joe Biden’s decision to run for president again was a catastrophic mistake. It just was. He and his inner circle, they refused to believe the polls, they refused to believe he was unpopular, they refused to acknowledge until very late that anyone could be upset about inflation,” Favreau said during the podcast.
Favreau discussed the results of the election with his fellow “Pod Save America” hosts and explained that Biden repeatedly touted a historically strong economy as the candidate and added, “clearly, 70, 80% of voters don’t believe that.”
“And then after the debate, the Biden people told us that the polls were fine, and Biden was still the strongest candidate. They were privately telling reporters at the time that Kamala Harris couldn’t win. So they were shivving Kamala Harris to reporters while they told everyone else, ‘not a time for an open process,’” Favreau continued.
Jon Favreau, former chief speechwriter for President Barack Obama, speaks during the Politicon convention inside the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California, U.S., on Saturday, July 29, 2017. During the third annual Politicon pundits, politicians, comedians and entertainers gather to discuss issues that touch all sides of the political spectrum. (Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Favreau also pointed to the Biden campaign’s internal polling numbers.
“Then we find out when the Biden campaign becomes the Harris campaign, that the Biden campaign’s own internal polling at the time when they were telling us he was the strongest candidate, showed that Donald Trump was going to win 400 electoral votes,” Favreau added.
The president repeatedly dismissed polls showing he was trailing President-elect Donald Trump throughout the race. Prior to dropping out the race and following a rough debate performance, the president told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that pollsters told him the race was neck-and-neck.
“All pollsters I talk to tell me it’s a toss-up. And when I’m behind… there’s only one poll I’m really far behind, CBS poll and NBC, I mean, excuse me,” Biden said at the time.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) at Swissotel in Chicago, on June 24, 2022. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
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Tommy Vietor, a co-host of “Pod Save America” pointed to polling that showed voters thought Biden was too old for a second term ahead of the debate, and shared several moments where the president fell short while campaigning for Harris.
Dan Pfeiffer, another co-host of their podcast, argued that Biden would have done worse in the election than Harris did.
