David Axelrod laments 'denial,' 'delusion' in Biden's ABC interview appearance

In the days following President Joe Biden's arguably disastrous debate against former President Donald Trump, the White House has been scrambling for ways to repair at least some of the damage to his re-election campaign.

A Friday interview with ABC News was intended to be a key aspect of Biden's comeback push, but according to former Barack Obama advisor and Democratic strategist David Axelrod, the president likely only made things worse with what he diagnosed as a mix of “delusion and defiance,” as Fox News reports.

Axelrod lets loose

Though the sit-down with ABC's George Stephanopoulous was meant to be something of a re-set for Biden that would help him communicate a sense of vigor and command that was so lacking at the aforementioned debate, reviews of the discussion were anything but good.

Axelrod did not hold back when it came to expressing his opinion on the broadcast, doing so first in an op-ed written for CNN.

“Biden could be excused for wanting to put his awful debate performance in the rear view mirror. That was his purpose Friday in sitting down for the interview – to try and quell the panic that has gripped the Democratic Party,” he wrote.

However, Biden's suggestion that “the Lord Almighty” was the only force capable of convincing him to leave the race appeared to frustrate Axelrod almost as much as the president's apparent denial of his current status in election polls.

The entire presentation from the president was something Axelrod described as “Denial. Delusion. Defiance.”

“Not winning”

During a Sunday appearance on CNN's Inside Politics, Axelrod supplemented his original take on Biden's situation with additional words of criticism and regret, as The Hill reports.

“There are certain immutable facts of life, and those were painfully obvious on that debate stage, and the president just doesn't seem to come to – he hasn't come to grips with it: He's not winning this race,” he declared.

Axelrod did not stop there, adding, “If you just look at the data and talk to people around the country, political people around the country, it's more likely that he'll lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race.”

“Listening to the interview, he seemed to deny where he is in the race. He seems not to grasp what is the big concern that people have,” the longtime Obama insider explained.

Axelrod posited that Biden may believe he will be able to triumph over adversity this time around in much the same way has he has in the past, but he noted, “What he can't beat is Father Time. And that's really the concern here.”

Only a matter of time?

Though Biden has continued to insist that he has no plans to depart the race, the groundswell of Democratic politicians, mainstream media outlets, and high-dollar donors wishing he would just keeps on growing.

If Axelrod is correct, and the die has effectively already been cast in terms of Biden's fate, the only questions that remain are those of precisely when and how he will ultimately take his leave.