‘Consummate insider’: Axelrod digs at Biden while comparing him to Jimmy Carter’s legacy

Former President Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod said President Joe Biden is Washington, D.C.’s “consummate insider” Monday on CNN while also comparing Biden to the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, whom he described as D.C.’s “outsider.”

The Carter Center announced Sunday that the former Democratic president passed away at 100 years old after several brief hospital visits in recent years. On CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” guest host Wolf Blitzer replayed a clip of Biden remarking on Carter’s death, recalling how he was the first U.S. senator to endorse Carter’s bid for office. He asked Axelrod for his thoughts.

Axelrod began by commenting on Biden’s remarks about Carter’s character. He went on to say that the main difference between the two men was their involvement in D.C.

“But it strikes me that one difference between Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter was that Jimmy Carter spent four years in Washington. Joe Biden spent half a century,” Axelrod said. “Jimmy Carter was the consummate outsider. Joe Biden is the consummate insider.”

“There was never a real comfort between Carter and that town because he came with a promise to take on the conventional politics of that moment and to heal the country after Watergate and Vietnam,” Axelrod added. “That put him in conflict with a lot of the power brokers in Washington. He pushed ethics rules that existed for decades, including disclosing his own income taxes, inspectors general, independent of agencies to monitor what agencies were doing. He took on some of the sweetheart kind of deals in Washington and some of the projects that were wasteful, that were of particular interest to members of Congress.”

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Axelrod went on to say how Carter also refused to have alcohol at White House events, highlighting his promise to take on the “worst elements” of the government.

“He didn’t have liquor at White House events, the lubricant of Washington commerce and politics,” Axelrod added. “So in many ways, he left Washington as an outsider, and he returns to Washington for this final time as an outsider, as he is by all of humanity, but still someone who kept faith with his promise to take on some of the worst elements of our government.”

With Biden’s term coming to an end, political pundits have been critical on what he will be remembered for from his four years in office. Former Hillary Clinton campaign senior adviser Karen Finney attempted to defend Biden’s legacy Sunday on CNN, saying he will be remembered for foreign policy and his “accomplishments” in the Middle East. CNN’s Scott Jennings, though, pushed back. He said Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal was disastrous. He also said he was concerned about Biden’s mental fitness.

Approval for Biden began to decline in September 2021, hitting its all-time low in June with just 37.4% support from Americans. As of today, the president’s approval rating still sits at 37.4%, with his disapproval remaining at 56.6%, just 21 days before he leaves the White House, according to average data from FiveThirtyEight.

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