Some of President Joe Biden's supporters are pressing fellow Democrats to stop suggesting the party needs another candidate to head its 2024 national ticket.
That comes with recent poll results showing Biden trailing former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2024 matchup.
David Axelrod, former President Barack Obama's campaign adviser, said Biden has "no better" than a 50% chance of winning next year's presidential election.
Politico recently reported that there were emerging concerns that Biden's support for Israel in its war against Hamas was weakening him among key parts of the Democratic Party's base.
The in-party criticism and worry prompted Biden's allies to step up calls for Democrats to rally around the president.
"We gotta pipe down the moaning and groaning and all the whining. There's too much of that," said former Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., a former House Democratic Caucus chair, The Hill reported.
"I think that leaches into the psyche of the voters as well. That's got to stop, and I think at that point, you'll start to see Biden's numbers improve, certainly amongst Democrats, but I think voter-wide they'll start to improve."
Steve Elmendorf, deputy campaign manager for John Kerry's 2004 presidential run, said Democrats complaining about Biden doesn't help the party.
"I'm not like, oh, everything they do is great over there," Elmendorf said, The Hill reported. "Obviously, they need to constantly refine the message and figure out what works, and there are challenges with various groups of voters and they need to figure those out. But I don't think it's helpful as a party for people to sort of run around publicly and complain.
"He's running for reelection, people need to understand that and so as a party, everybody should figure out how do we get him reelected. Like, that's pretty simple. I'm in the [former Obama campaign managers] Jim Messina, David Plouffe school of, people need to stop bedwetting and focus on how to win."
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., called for party unity in the face of Biden's primary challengers, who include Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and author Marianne Williamson.
"The only way we can ensure that we won't fail is if we stay as unified and as aggressively engaged as we possibly can," Daschle said. "And that seems to me to be the simple truth that the sooner we all recognize and acknowledge the better."
Biden turned 81 on Monday, which drew attention to his status as the oldest person ever to occupy the Oval Office, with opinion polls showing Americans worried he is too old for the post he is seeking to win for a second term.
"Biden-Harris is the ticket and it's not in Democrats best interest to entertain anything other than that," said Yasmin Nelson, a former senior policy adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris when she served in the Senate, The Hill reported.
"The campaign has a year to show voters the difference they've made and the significant legislative success over the first term, amidst extreme odds. They have to remind voters of that fight daily and build the brand around that success."
Reuters contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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