President Joe Biden will seek re-election in November despite not being very popular. Voters disapprove of his management, mainly in terms of the economy and border security, which has caused him to be surpassed by Donald Trump in key states. In this context, his former chief of staff analyzed his electoral strategy and found a discursive problem to improve.
Ron Klain, who worked with Bill Clinton and Al Gore before joining Biden’s team in 2009, was his chief of staff both as Barack Obama’s vice president and during the first two years of his presidency.
“He is not a congressman”
The former official recently made headlines for starring in an audio, broadcast by POLITICO, in which he openly criticized the president’s electoral strategy and invited him to focus more on the economy.
“I think the president is out there too much talking about bridges. He does two or three events a week where he’s cutting a ribbon on a bridge. And here’s a bridge. Like I tell you, if you go into the grocery store, you go to the grocery store and, you know, eggs and milk are expensive, the fact that there’s a new f*cking bridge is not relevant,” he expressed in his participation in an event organized by ‘Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.’
🚨#BREAKING: From Joe Biden's Former White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain: "I think the President is out there too much talking about bridges. If you go into the grocery store, eggs and milk are expensive. The fact that there's a new 'fucking' bridge is not relevant." pic.twitter.com/smptjcS8JK
— Andy Hidalgo (@realandyhidalgo) April 10, 2024
Although he highlighted Biden’s management of infrastructure as a positive, he made it very clear that it could not be the only pillar of the campaign.
“He’s not a congressman. He’s not running for Congress. I think it’s kind of a fool’s errand. I think that [it] also doesn’t get covered that much because, look, it’s a f*cking bridge. Like, it’s a bridge, and how interesting is the bridge? It’s a little interesting, but it’s not a lot interesting,” he added.
Klain recommended that Biden’s electoral message emphasize the future rather than the results of the first four years.
“The president’s most effective economic message is contrast around whose side are you on, and compassion for the [pinch] of family budgets, and his agenda to bring down costs and raise incomes — and that lauding achievements — especially ones with abstract benefits — is less persuasive with voters,” Klain said.
The White House responded indifferently to the former chief of staff’s audio. Speaking to POLITICO, White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Advisor Andrew Bates said, “Like Ron says, President Biden is crisscrossing the country building on his State of the Union message, highlighting that he is fighting to grow the middle class and lower costs like prescription drugs while blocking the trickle-down agenda Republican officials have proposed on behalf of ‘rich special interests, including Medicare cuts and tax giveaways to big corporations.’”
“The President repeated that message in his interview yesterday with Univision and will not let up,” he stated.
