During an interview with the “Pod Save America” podcast released on Tuesday, Biden Campaign Surrogate Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said that President Joe Biden should acknowledge “I am not as articulate as I used to be, I have diminished in certain ways, as anyone would when you’re aging, but I still have the values, I still have the judgment, I have the wisdom,” and that his ABC interview did have some “answers that were meandering.”
Khanna began by saying that to address concerns about Biden’s age, “you acknowledge that the concerns are valid. You don’t go on calling people bedwetters for raising concerns that many Americans feel. And by the way, it’s not just rich donors, it’s activists, it’s grassroots folks, it’s ordinary people in coffee shops. So, this idea that we’re going to attack our own supporters is not effective. The other thing you don’t do is go to war with the press. … Have the humility to engage the press.”
He continued, “So, all of this, I think, is a correction that the Biden campaign needs, which is to say, let’s have an honest conversation, I understand it, I am not as articulate as I used to be, I have diminished in certain ways, as anyone would when you’re aging, but I still have the values, I still have the judgment, I have the wisdom, and this is why I’m running, and let’s make the contrast to Donald Trump.”
Khanna added that he thinks Biden can address the concerns about his age and should hold town halls and engage to earn the trust of voters.
Later, co-host Jon Lovett asked, “Did you see the George Stephanopoulos interview?”
After Khanna said he did, Lovett asked, “And you think that that performance is one that would help Joe Biden assuage people’s concerns?”
Khanna answered, “I thought the ‘Morning Joe’ interview was better towards that. I thought the Stephanopoulos interview, he didn’t have any clear flubs, but I also thought there were answers that weren’t that great, that people have talked about, saying that I’ll just give it my try and I’ll be okay. I know what he was trying to get at, you do your duty, you can’t control larger things in life, but it came off as he wasn’t fully in the fight. There were other answers that were meandering. And so, it wasn’t one of his best interviews. But I don’t think that it was disqualifying, that interview, and I think he’s got to do more of it.”
Khanna also stated, “Where our party has failed is trying to deny the obvious, what people saw or trying to pretend like Joe Biden is something that he’s not.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
