Democrats distancing themselves from Biden over Delawarean's tanking poll numbers
Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and others speak out; analysis from 'The Five'
Many congressional Democrats are increasingly fleeing the shadow of their party's leader, President Biden, while the United States continues to socioeconomically falter under his leadership amid anxiety over a possible 2010-like Republican wave in the quickly approaching 2022 midterms.
The panel on "The Five" discussed how Biden's ineffective and unpopular leadership is becoming even more of a drag on a fractured Democratic Party.
One notable Democrat, Maine Rep. Jared Golden – who holds a seat in an expansive, mostly rural district with a Cook PVI of Republican+6 – said he is not concerned with Biden's popularity because he is personally eclipsing the president by 30 points in his region.
Congressman, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Moral Courage Award recipient Jared Golden speaks on stage during Headstrong Washington DC Gala.. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Headstrong )
Golden was also the only House Democrat to join Republicans and vote against Biden's socioeconomic overhaul package dubbed "Build Back Better." In 2018, he voted against Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in her bid to remain Speaker of the House, instead casting a vote for Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
"Things [are] getting pretty lonely for President Biden in his own party. Democrats are worried Biden scary poll numbers will lead to a midterm bloodbath and some are making sure to distance themselves from the commander-in-chief," host Dana Perino said. Perino added that people in "vulnerable" districts like Golden's are distancing themselves from the president.
She also pointed out that left-wing elected prosecutors in Democratic-run cities nationwide continue to propagate soft-on-crime policies.
"We saw … with ‘Uncle Larry’ Krasner in Philadelphia spending his whole press conference saying ‘we don’t have a problem, there is nothing happening here, you don’t believe your own eyes, the crime is not up,'" she said, alluding to recent remarks by the Philadelphia district attorney amid what is the highest murder rate in Pennsylvania's largest city since 1990.
Philadelphia recently surpassed 500 homicides this year under the watch of Krasner and fellow Democrat Mayor James Kenney. Last week, Kenney blamed Pennsylvania's Second Amendment-friendly Republican-led House and Senate in part for the spike in gun crime, claiming they "don't care how many people get killed."
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner reacts while being mentioned by Danielle Outlaw at a press conference announcing her as the new Police Commissioner on December 30, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images) (Getty)
]Perino and the rest of "The Five" panelists said it is also local Democratic officials like Krasner and his Los Angeles counterpart George Gascon who are creating a political issue for national Democrats.
Host Jesse Watters, a Philadelphia native, ripped both Krasner and Biden, saying that the district attorney should "feel the pain, not spin the pain" of southeastern Pennsylvanians, while the president separately appears "out of touch" with the fears of Americans living with a national crime spike.
"The [people] feel like the country is going down, down, down and that’s where he looks like he is out of touch," Watters said. "If I was a Democrat running for the reelection, you know what I would do? I would retire and become a lobbyist."
"[W]hy would I want to sit around and dial for dollars if I’m going to get smoked in the midterms? … The donors don’t want to give me any money, they know I’m getting smoked, so what am I going to run for reelection [for]?"
He added that few Democrats outside of safe districts will want the president to campaign with them, which is a blow to the typical support felt by lawmakers aligned with a president's party.
Watters said that if he were a Democratic lawmaker, he might instead invite Michelle Obama or Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as a proxy for Biden.
"[Biden] is not Barack [Obama] … he is not Donald Trump – they were historic and both had huge bases and both of their parties got crushed in the midterms," he argued. "What does Joe have going for him?"