Former Top Obama Adviser Calls New Joe Biden Ad “Tasteless”

David Axelrod isn’t a fan of the Draft Biden campaign’s latest commercial.


Draft Biden, the super-PAC agitating for the vice president to enter the 2016 presidential race, released its first TV commercial Wednesday morning. And boy, was it a maudlin doozy. The 90-second ad features a Biden voiceover, taken from a 2015 Yale commencement address, with the vice president detailing the car accident that killed his wife and daughter shortly after he won his Senate seat in 1972. As Biden speaks, the ad flashes black-and-white photos of Biden over his career in the Senate leading up to his time in the Obama White House. The ad ends with a solemn black screen and the plea, “Joe, run.”

Draft Biden plans to dump six figures into broadcasting the ad, including during the first Democratic debate next week, per NPR. But not everyone was a fan of Draft Biden using Biden’s personal tragedy for political ends. David Axelrod, Obama’s past chief campaign strategist, took to Twitter, suggesting that ad was “exploitative” and “tasteless.”

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate