Former Obama chief strategist David Axelrod predicted that "upscale," "liberal" North Carolina residents hit hard by Hurricane Helene are "probably going to figure out a way to vote" in the presidential election next month — but suggested that those in the same area who would cast ballots for former President Donald Trump likely won't be as resourceful.
Axelrod — a dyed-in-the-wool leftist — made the eye-popping declaration last week on an episode of his "Hacks on Tap" podcast when speaking about swing states like North Carolina and the devastation Helene left behind.
'I’m not sure a bunch of these folks who’ve had their homes and lives destroyed elsewhere in Western North Carolina — in the mountains there — are gonna be as easy to wrangle for the Trump campaign.'
He called the city of Asheville a "blue dot" in Western North Carolina and said that despite the large-scale displacement in the surrounding area due to Helene, voters in Asheville have the smarts to get their votes in for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
"Those voters in Asheville are — they’re, you know, the kind of voters who will figure out a way to vote," Axelrod said. "You know, they’re upscale, kind of liberal voters, and they’re probably going to figure out a way to vote."
But as for Trump-backers in the area hit hard by Helene? Not so much, apparently.
"I’m not sure a bunch of these folks who’ve had their homes and lives destroyed elsewhere in western North Carolina — in the mountains there — are gonna be as easy to wrangle for the Trump campaign," Axelrod said.
He added, "I don’t know how that’s all going to play out, but it’s an unpredictable element in North Carolina that has made it maybe a little more interesting" in the run-up to the election.
Axelrod also said that "northern-tier battleground states other than Wisconsin are scary" for Democrats and that "you can't count on them." He added that Harris "needs to find an insurance policy" and a "second act" as the campaign races to the finish line.
Fox News pointed out some prominent X users who took issue with Axelrod’s statements:
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CNN political analyst Scott Jennings went there.
After President Joe Biden spoke from the Oval Office on Wednesday — never explaining why he chose to end his re-election campaign — a CNN panel that featured Biden allies swooned over the president for being "selfless" and "heroic," claiming Biden willingly chose to step away from power.
'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.'
But Jennings quickly rained on their parade.
The Republican commentator, instead, brought forth all of the evidence indicating that Biden's decision to step aside is not the selfless act of courage Democrats are claiming it to be.
"It's odd to me that just a few weeks ago — heck, a few days ago — most Democrats were still looking at television cameras and saying that this person is up to another four years. I mean, he's obviously running on fumes," Jennings began. "They weren't 'cheapfakes,' no matter what the government told you."
"In fact, I still think it's a legitimate scandal how they ever arrived at the decision to run again in the first place," he added.
The Biden family and his staff, Jennings continued, "have a lot of explaining to do," referring to their decision seemingly to hide Biden's cognitive decline.
But that's not the only problem for Democrats. In fact, the praise for Biden, Jennings said, hides the fact that Democratic Party leaders forced Biden to step down from his re-election campaign, thus ignoring the will of voters.
"I'm still shocked at how easy it is to overthrow the president," Jennings observed. "He got 81 million votes in 2020, and then he get 14 million more. But at the end of the day, he was no match for a handful of party bosses who run the Democratic Party."
"At the end of the day, a bunch of people looked into TV cameras over the last days, weeks, and months, and told you a lot of things — a lot of things that were not true about this president," he pointed out.
The panel did not immediately challenge anything Jennings said.
But later in the discussion, David Axelrod, a close ally of former President Barack Obama, took exception to Jennings' observations. He claimed Biden wasn't "toppled" by Democratic Party bosses before chastising Jennings for not giving Biden enough "grace."
Jennings, however, did not have the patience for Axelrod's revisionist history.
"What you're asking Republicans to do is to overlook a lot of dishonesty that came right out of this White House, that came right out of the vice president, people who worked for him, his family, other Democrats, Democrats in Congress," Jennings told Axelrod. "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 and so on."
Jennings ultimately told Axelrod that it is "weird" Democrats are pretending that Biden wasn't pushed out by party bosses, especially considering that Biden and Democratic Party leaders were insisting just one month ago that Biden is capable of serving another four years as president.
Despite the fact that Democratic voters chose Biden in their primary elections, Vice President Kamala Harris became the party's presumptive nominee this week when enough delegates pledged to support her campaign.
Harris, unfortunately, has an uphill fight if she wants to seriously challenge Donald Trump for the White House.
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