A recent gaffe from President Joe Biden has become a window into a world in which some Democrats are irreverent toward the commander-in-chief while others view him as irrelevant.

“Invisible” was the word used by Newsweek for Biden, as he “disappears from Kamala Harris’ campaign.”

Biden appeared briefly Tuesday when he spoke about former President Donald Trump in a New Hampshire appearance, according to Fox News.

“I know this sounds bizarre. It sounds like if I said this five years ago, you’d lock me up. We got to lock him up,” Biden said.

Then came the attempt to rephrase that as he added, “politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.”

Alex Thompson, a journalist with Axios, noted two different takes on the Democratic reaction to Biden’s comments.

Noting this could be politically unhelpful to Harris, a former Biden admin official texts me: “we gotta lock Joe up.” https://t.co/juzeUrhM1H

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) October 22, 2024

“Noting this could be politically unhelpful to Harris, a former Biden admin official texts me: ‘we gotta lock Joe up,’” Thompson posted on X.

“A counterpoint from a current Biden admin official: ‘For better or worse, no one is listening to him anymore and his words have little power and less reach. It’s a blip. Gone in any meaningful way by mid-day tomorrow if it makes it that long,’” Thompson also posted.

A counterpoint from a current Biden admin official: “For better or worse, no one is listening to him anymore and his words have little power and less reach. It’s a blip. Gone in any meaningful way by mid-day tomorrow if it makes it that long.”

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) October 22, 2024

But Fox News noted that over at CNN, the remark brought a cringing reaction.

“More than anything else, it was such a profoundly stupid thing for the president to say,” CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams said.

The Trump campaign was quick to respond.

“Joe Biden just admitted the truth: He and Kamala’s plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent President Trump because they can’t beat him fair and square,” Trump campaign representative Karoline Leavitt said, according to the New York Post.

“The Harris-Biden Admin is the real threat to democracy. We call on Kamala Harris to condemn Joe Biden’s disgraceful remark,” she said.

In an Op-Ed in the Washington Examiner, Zachary Faria said the comment reported by Thompson that disparaged Biden is a telling summary of the Biden era.

“That is a comment made about the current U.S. president, made by a member of his own administration. ‘No one is listening to him anymore, and his words have little power and less reach.’ It was clear since he dropped out of the race that Biden was going to be an absentee president, but to have people who work for him admit that now ‘no one is listening to him’ is a damning indictment of Biden when he is still the one ostensibly in charge of the executive branch for another three months,” Faria wrote.

“Biden was pushed out of the race by his own party because no one thought he could win re-election. He was undermined in favor of his incompetent vice president, who might just lose anyway, and now members of his own administration admit no one cares what Biden says anymore,” he continued.

“In his four years in office, Biden has been a failure and a loser, and he will now finish out his term as an irrelevant afterthought.”

Contributor, News

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