Democrat strategist Paul Begala said Friday the special counsel's report on President Joe Biden is "terrible for Democrats" and said Biden should respond by going "on the attack 24/7."
But instead, Begala, former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said Biden made it worse Thursday night by saying "I really am sharp" in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Hur's report. Biden went on to confuse Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the president of Mexico.
"Look, I'm a Biden supporter, and I slept like a baby last night: I woke up every two hours and wet the bed," Begala told CNN on Friday. "This is terrible for Democrats. Anybody with a functioning brain knows that.
"But here's what you do — instead of calling a press conference and saying, 'I really am sharp' — you attack the other guy."
Biden and the White House went on the attack Friday — on the report itself. Vice President Kamala Harris called the Hur report "politically motivated," while White House spokesman Ian Sams framed it as "gratuitous and inappropriate."
The Biden administration also had the support of top Democrat proxies who tried to beat back Hur's summary in which he opted against charging Biden, in part, because he would have come across in front of a jury as a "well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."
Begala said Biden instead needs to be attacking GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
"Joe Biden gave the strategy in 2012: Don't compare us to the almighty, compare us to the alternative," Begala said. "Everything with Biden has to be, not 'I'm great,' the other guy is really damaging, dangerous, a threat.
"I want to see more Joe Biden, and the gaffes are built in. But instead of simply saying, 'I'm OK', he just simply, he needs to be on the attack 24/7 for the next 269 days," Begala concluded.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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