Van Jones: ‘If I Were Biden, I’d Stay Hidden’

JENNINGS: “We will have a long general election. They will fight about the economy. They will fight about — and they already don’t wear very well with most Americans. And I just — I wonder — “
AXELROD: “Let’s be honest. You talk about what the job of the Biden campaign — and they have to have a narrative where he is leading the country and where Trump would lead the country, but this will be trench warfare. They will spend more time talking about Donald Trump than Joe Biden, and he will be spending a lot of time talking about Joe Biden.”
COOPER: “Hiding in trenches? Is it going to be — I mean, are they going to be on the campaign — what is the campaign going to look like? Are there going to be debates?”
AXELROD: “I think that’s an open question.”
Jones: “If I were Biden, I would stay hidden. I will tell you why. He doesn’t inspire confidence. He is not a great messenger for himself. He has done a tremendous job for this economy. Union members, union leaders have — are racking up win after win. They should be put forward. There are clean energy executives in red states that are putting people to work. There’s something wrong with this campaign where we are somehow expecting Joe Biden — frankly, he hid during the last campaign — to just somehow come out and be Flash Gordon and save his own campaign. The people who are benefiting from the Biden economy — and they exist — should be empowered to speak.”
BEDINGFIELD: “Wait, wait, wait, I’ve gotta disagree with that. I think in 2019 and 2020, there were doubts about whether Biden was the guy who could take on Trump and win. I think Biden ran a very disciplined campaign. I think the sort of, ‘He hid in the basement,’ well, remember, we were in the midst of a global pandemic, a once-in-a-generation crisis. Frankly, the way Joe Biden handled it watts reassuring to people and was a big part of the reason that he was elected president in 2020, because the contrast with Trump, Trump’s chaos and his inability to handle this crisis that came down the pike when he was president, you know, it showed people that Joe Biden was the right choice. So the idea that Biden won in spite of himself, that’s not borne out by the facts.”
JENNINGS: “What Van is saying, he was saved of the riggers of a long campaign. This campaign is going to be lengthy. There’s nothing to save him now. They are both going to have to be out there.”