Former President Joe Biden returned to the political spotlight this week with his speech claiming the Trump administration has put Social Security in jeopardy, but Democrats aren't "particularly enthusiastic" about him returning to a public platform, Michael LaRosa, the former press secretary for Biden's wife, Jill, told Newsmax.
"I think most Democrats are ready to, sort of, turn the page on the Biden chapter and focus, sort of, on future leaders in the party — new voices and new ideas," LaRosa said on "National Report."
Biden, speaking to the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago Tuesday did not mention President Donald Trump by name but said that in fewer than 100 days, the administration has caused "breathtaking" damage to Social Security," a claim the White House denies.
"Yesterday's speech was sort of tailored to the audience he was speaking before, a group that depends on the strength of Social Security and that network," said LaRosa. "His points were fine, and it was a standard procedure for Democrats to talk about defending Social Security and scaring people into thinking Republicans are going to take it away."
Biden, he added, "didn't say anything politically offensive or harmful," but still, "Democrats are ready to focus on the future."
LaRosa also discussed Biden's decision to leave last year's presidential race and said he does not think his family has any regrets.
"The family, their job is to support him and be his supporter, be his champion, and I think they did that job well," he said. "It is the responsibility of his political advisers at the highest levels to reason with him and provide him the most unfiltered political advice that gets him to a place to make the right political decision."
Everyone is aware, though, that Biden "didn't make the right political decision in 2022 or 2023" about running for office again, said LaRosa, but "I can't get inside their head. I can't imagine they have any regrets. That's all for the Democratic Party to reckon with at this moment."
He added that he would tell Biden, if he was advising him, that it is time for him to leave the stage.
"I am enormously grateful for his five decades of public service," LaRosa said. "I am so grateful that he was the man that this country chose to bring us out of the ditch we were left in after COVID and during COVID. He still is the man who received the most votes ever for president."
"Donald Trump ran a great campaign in 2024, but he didn't come close to the number that Joe Biden did, and he couldn't ever manage to get 50% of the vote … Joe Biden got nearly 52%."
And when it comes to the new generation of Democrats, LaRosa said he looks for the party to pick its own "disruptor," and he thinks that person will be billionaire Mark Cuban.
"I think we need an outsider," he said. "I think we need a responsible disruptor. I think we need our version of Trump — but in a responsible way — and someone who can speak truth to power and isn't afraid of the media or institutions or the establishment."
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