Biden advisor calls Democratic Party decision to force him out ‘betrayal’
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Mike Donilon, a former senior adviser to former President Joe Biden, criticized the Democratic Party on Tuesday for forcing Biden to drop out of the 2024 re-election campaign.
Donilon condemned the decision to replace Biden, calling it “undemocratic” and a “betrayal” that cost him the presidency of the Democratic Party.
“I thought what happened in the party was disloyal. I thought it was an act of treason against the president. I thought it was undemocratic because it did not respect the will of the Democratic primary voters,” he said.
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Mike Donilon, a former senior adviser to former President Joe Biden, criticized the Democratic Party on Tuesday for causing Biden to drop out of the race last June. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty)
Donilon made the statement while speaking as a guest panelist at the USC Center for the Political Future. conference this week.
CNN anchor Elex Michaelson, who hosted the event, asked the former Biden aide for his perspective on Biden’s decision to drop out of the race. Donilon responded by criticizing those who advised the president to step aside.
“I thought the Democratic Party had lost its mind. That’s what I thought,” he said.
Multiple Democratic leaders — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. – He reportedly called for Biden to resign from his re-election campaign after his disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump in June 2024.
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Former President Biden has been in the White House throughout his term. (Fox News)
Donilon stated that dismissing Biden was the wrong move and said, “I thought Joe Biden was the best candidate. I thought he was the person with the highest probability of being elected president. I thought he would be the best president.”
He stated that the party dropped Biden even though he voted within three points (within the margin of error) of Trump. Donilon claimed that this was the first time in US history that a candidate was replaced despite being so close in the polls.
Donilon added that “there was a perception that he couldn’t do the job”; The former adviser disputed that perception, saying: “No one can point to a moment in Biden’s presidency where he failed to do his job as president.”
He also argued that Biden should remain in the race because he is the only candidate to beat Trump.
“Look, my view was: Look, there are three people running against Donald Trump; Joe Biden is the only one who beat him.”
The Washington Post reported in December 2024 that Biden told allies at the time that he still believed he could beat Trump if he had continued running.
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Mike Donilon, a former senior adviser to former President Biden, called it politically “stupid” this week for the Democratic Party to try to launch a new campaign with former Vice President Kamala Harris just months before Election Day 2024. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
During the conference, Donilon also criticized the idea of starting a Democratic campaign from scratch in the summer before the 2024 election.
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“And I thought it was politically stupid, because I think the idea that you can create a campaign and run a candidate in the middle of summer, a few weeks before the convention, is not a smart decision,” he said, but also explained that he thought Harris ran “a really good race.”
