President Joe Biden’s campaign for re-election is in trouble and those closest to him are aware of it. Last week at a White House event, the president’s former White House chief of staff was caught on a leaked recording heavily criticizing his former boss’s campaign strategy.
Ronald Klain, a long-time confidant of Biden had some choice remarks about the president during a “Democracy: A Journal of Ideas” event on Apr. 4. He had some choice remarks about the job Biden is doing, implying that the president’s focus should be on more important matters and that covering infrastructure events was a “fool’s errand.”
Former Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain to his old boss:
Stop rambling about building bridges when Americans are struggling to afford groceries, struggling to fill up their gas tanks, and struggling to pay their rents. pic.twitter.com/6BkSf38ZKG
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) April 10, 2024
“I think the president is out there too much talking about bridges,” Klain said, according to audio obtained by Politico. “He does two or three events a week where he’s cutting a ribbon on a bridge. And here’s a bridge. Like, I tell you, if you go into the grocery store, you go to the grocery store and, you know, eggs and milk are expensive, the fact that there’s a f—ing bridge is not [inaudible].”
“He’s not a congressman. He’s not running for Congress,” Klain continued. “I think it’s kind of a fool’s errand. I think that [it] also doesn’t get covered that much because, look, it’s a f—ing bridge. Like it’s a bridge, and how interesting is the bridge? It’s a little interesting but it’s not a lot interesting.”
🚨#BREAKING: From Joe Biden's Former White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain: "I think the President is out there too much talking about bridges. If you go into the grocery store, eggs and milk are expensive. The fact that there's a new 'fucking' bridge is not relevant." pic.twitter.com/smptjcS8JK
— Andy Hidalgo (@realandyhidalgo) April 10, 2024
Klain’s comments aren’t wrong. Many Americans are struggling to keep food in their refrigerators while the president’s main focus is elsewhere. He warned about Biden’s lack of focus on inflation and getting prices down.
Making an appearance on MSNBC’s “All In” last week, Klain admitted that while progress has been made, it’s not enough because prices are still too high. He also acknowledged that while wages have increased, it’s still not giving Americans much relief when it comes to their pocketbooks.
In recent years, Biden has shrugged off any negative feedback about the economy, saying that inflation is improving, something that many Americans would disagree with. The president has bragged about creating millions of jobs, but that doesn’t help when there isn’t enough money to pay for necessities such as housing and food.
Ron Klain is right. The #1 thing I hear from voters on the fence is how high the cost of everything is. High grocery prices are felt immediately & repeatedly.
Even if the more macro economic trends are relatively positive, that isn’t felt in a weekly household budget. https://t.co/nJCWrXyago
— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) April 11, 2024
Despite his disagreement with Biden’s priorities, he told Politico that he still speaks highly about his success while in office. To many of Biden’s critics, there aren’t many accomplishments, unless you consider the crisis at the southern border, rising inflation, Americans living paycheck to paycheck or an increase in crime to be areas to brag about.