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Democratic campaign chair says Biden gets a ‘bum rap’

U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., speaks to a reporter before an event in Armonk, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said on Sunday that he believes President Biden gets a “bum rap” for the current political environment.

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” moderator Chuck Todd asked Maloney if he thought Biden would be to blame if Democrats lose Tuesday’s midterm elections.

“I think the president gets a bum rap. By the way, he’s been a leader on public safety his whole career. He’s also fixing our roads and our bridges. He’s bringing jobs back from China,” Maloney told Todd. “He’s capping seniors’ out-of-pocket costs in Medicare. He took on the big drug companies.” 

“I think the guy gets a bum rap. I think he’s working through the damage of the Trump years and the pandemic, and he’s not getting enough credit for it,” Maloney added. “Now, we’ve got more to do, and he’ll be the first one to tell you that.”

Biden has been seen as being a drag on certain Democratic campaigns, with his midterm strategy in the final days before the election being side-by-side with candidates in safe contests in decidedly blue states.


Maloney also wouldn’t give credence to the notion of a red wave in this year’s election, saying he wouldn’t “play hypotheticals.”

“Well, I guess what I’m not going to do is play hypotheticals with you when we’re two days out from an election and I’ve won five times in a district where everybody said I couldn’t,” Maloney told Todd.  “I mean, if we were having this conversation in 2012 you would’ve made fun of me for even running because I was running against a Republican incumbent with a bunch of money and nobody thought I could win.”