Ex-Obama adviser calls out Schumer for 'foolish' claim Dems didn't mislead on Biden
CNN commentator and ex-Obama adviser Van Jones called out Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Monday for claiming that Democrats didn't mislead the public about President Biden's ability to serve.
"That’s foolish. Look, obviously, Biden was in bad shape, and I was surprised," Jones said. "But there were people who are close who must have known better. Look, obviously, you know, a lot was known and wasn’t said and wasn’t shared. Now it’s leaking out all the time anyway. So, look, I think to have any credibility and integrity, people have to quit playing around. Like, Schumer’s nose is going to start growing if he keeps saying stuff like that."
NBC News' Kristen Welker confronted Schumer on Sunday's "Meet the Press" with a clip of the senator talking about Biden last February. In the clip, Schumer said, "His mental acuity is great. It’s fine. It’s as good as it’s been over the years. All this right-wing propaganda that his mental acuity has declined is wrong." He insisted on Sunday that Democrats did not mislead anyone about Biden's health.
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On Monday night, CNN host Abby Phillip said that the other question posed to Schumer about whether Biden could have served another four years, which the senator did not answer, was "incredibly telling." Other CNN panelists agreed.
"We saw both Joe Biden, and we saw Democrats all over the place defending him and telling us with a straight face that he was super strong, just the same as when he got in," S.E. Cupp said. "That's delusional."
"I think they were going to lose anyway. But admit it, and move on. You keep going on TV and talking like this, to Van’s point, you’re going to lose all credibility for the next time," she added.
CNN political commentator Scott Jennings noted that admitting to covering up Biden's health would be admitting to one of the "biggest cover-ups in modern American political history."
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"Democrat politicians lied. Democrat pundits lied. A lot of people who cover the White House looked the other way or believed absolute crap they were being fed by the White House press secretary," Jennings said. "To admit it now would be to say, ‘you know what, America, boy, we did try to pull the wool over your eyes and you weren't buying it.’ I guess I understand why keeping up the charade now, to some degree because to admit it now would to be admit this massive, huge cover up."
Ashley Allison, who worked for the Biden-Harris campaign, said during the panel discussion that the June debate was very telling, but suggested the president might be having good days and bad days.
Schumer told Welker on Sunday, "Let's look at President Biden. He’s had an amazing record. The legislation we passed, one of the most significant groups of legislation since Lyndon Johnson’s great society, putting in 235 judges, a record, and he’s a patriot. He’s a great guy, and when he stepped down he did it on his own because he thought it was better, not only for the Democratic Party, for America. We should all salute him. We should all salute him."
When pressed on whether Biden could have served another four years, Schumer said, "Well I'm not going to speculate. As I said, I think his record is a stellar one, and he’ll go down in history as a really outstanding president."