Anita Dunn blames ‘horrible attacks’ by Democrats and press for forcing Biden out
By
Ross O'Keefe
August 9, 2024 9:23 am
.
Anita Dunn, a former senior adviser to President Joe Biden, thought his June 27 debate performance wasn’t the reason for his campaign’s demise.
The nightmare event would have been salvageable, Dunn said, but that the media’s reaction and the way Democrats turned on him and pressured him to abandon seeking reelection was what tipped him over the edge. Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on July 21, less than a month after he debated former President Donald Trump.
“It was a bad debate, but it didn’t feel catastrophic at all, certainly in terms of voters,” Dunn told Politico. “This campaign had been fairly static for a long time, and the debate didn’t change that. What did change it was 24 days of unremitting negative, horrible attacks on Joe Biden … from his own party and from the press.”
While the political world agreed Biden’s performance on June 27 signaled a huge problem for Democrats, Dunn said she thought voters’ distaste for Trump would have been enough to help the president ride out the storm.
“Voters didn’t particularly like Biden’s performance in the first half hour,” Dunn said. “He wasn’t scoring well at all. But it’s not as though they walked out. They very much liked a lot of the second half of the debate for Joe Biden. They hated Donald Trump.”
more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/presidential/3115868/anita-dunn-blames-horrible-attacks-democrats-press-forcing-biden-out/
