During a panel discussion on CNN on Wednesday, political commentator Scott Jennings took senior political commentator David Axelrod to task over President Joe Biden's abrupt decision to suspend his presidential campaign.
Jennings told Axelrod, a former senior adviser and campaign strategist for former President Barack Obama, that Democrats are asking Republicans to "overlook a lot of dishonesty that came right out of this White House, that came right out of the vice president, people who work for him, his family, other Democrats, Democrats in Congress," reported The New York Post.
"You're asking the country to overlook a lot of dishonesty about Joe Biden's abilities, capabilities, his capacity to serve for another four years," he said in the wake of Biden's addressing the country Wednesday night from the Oval Office for the first time since dropping his bid for reelection.
Jennings argued that Biden's decision to bow out was made "not just from the goodness of his own heart, but, you have to admit, with a little bit of a push from the party bosses."
Axelrod pushed back, arguing the "party bosses" were doing the bidding of the American people "who made a judgment."
"There are so many Republicans who I talked to, who are overlooking far more than this, and they'll tell you that about Donald Trump," Axelrod said, trying to shift the focus to the GOP.
"I mean, that is really the story of the Republican Party right now," he said. He said the party "is in the thrall of a guy who is morally and ethically challenged and who left the presidency."
Jennings pushed back, saying Axelrod wasn't "on strong footing" to make that argument, arguing that Biden's decision to drop out of the race was "a weird one."
"I fully and freely admit that both parties have warts," he said. "But we're acting like there's no warts on this situation. This is weird. [Biden] won the primary without a serious challenge. He told us all he could serve, his party told us he could serve. He's clearly diminished."
Jennings said while he felt Biden "ultimately arrived in the right spot," it was "pretty torturous how they got here, and I think a lot of people burned a lot of credibility on the road to getting here."
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