Axelrod asks why Trump is ‘uncharacteristically holding fire’ as Biden teeters

Senior Democratic strategist David Axelrod raised questions Monday about former President Trump’s current strategy of keeping quiet amid rising concerns over President Biden’s health and candidacy.

“Trump’s not talking much about Biden’s bad debate. Trump’s campaign is not blitzing ads about it. And Lara Trump said last week it would be an affront to democracy if Biden were not the nominee,” Axelrod wrote in a social media post. “Question: Why do you think they are uncharacteristically holding fire?”

Axelrod, a longtime adviser to former President Obama, has been an outspoken critic of the Biden campaign in recent weeks as the president struggles to recover from a poor debate performance.

A rising number of Democrats have called on Biden to leave the race and make way for a different candidate in recent days.

Former Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), a former chair of the House GOP campaign arm, said last week that Trump’s strategy is simply to let Biden hurt himself with the negative attention.

“When your opponent is blowing himself up, don’t interrupt. … There’s no reason to insert yourself in that conversation,” Stivers told The Hill. “The discipline is smart on this topic, and he’s done a good job at that.”

“Nobody in the Democratic Party cares about what Trump thinks whether Biden’s the candidate, so why talk,” he continued. “I’m glad to see he’s learned from 2020, because he wasn’t very disciplined then. I think it speaks to him learning from the past.”

Axelrod has dismissed the calls for Biden to leave the race as “irrelevant,” saying he doesn’t believe the president will end his campaign. But he’s also been openly critical of Biden, calling him “dangerously out-of-touch” Friday.

“The president is rightfully proud of his record. But he is dangerously out-of-touch with the concerns people have about his capacities moving forward and his standing in this race,” Axelrod wrote in a post on the social platform X. “Years ago at this time, he was 10 points ahead of Trump. Today, he is six points behind.”

On Sunday, the strategist said it’s clear Biden is “not winning this race.”

“If you just look at the data and talk to people around the country, political people around the country, it’s more likely that he’ll lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race,” Axelrod said. “And if the stakes are as large as he says, and I believe they are, then he really needs to consider what the right thing to do here is.”