Democrats say Biden needs to quit taking GOP bait

Democrats are slamming former President Biden’s response to a series of investigations of him by Republicans on Capitol Hill and the Trump administration, arguing he is again taking the GOP bait to the detriment of his own party.

At a time when Democrats have sought to go on offense over President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and the MAGA World furor over the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, party operatives are scratching their heads at Biden’s need to insert himself into the conversation — not to mention his defensive rhetoric. 

They say Biden is again helping Republicans with his actions, though they say there are ways for him to engage without interfering in the party’s strategy.

“If he's able to go out and be a spokesperson on the issues that matter to him, if he wants to go talk about Medicaid, if he wants to go and offensively talk about that or other pressing issues, I think that makes sense and that does the work,” said one Democratic strategist. “But I don't think you have that conversation on Donald Trump’s terms. I don't see the logic on what the Biden inner circle is thinking here.”

“You'd have to question a lot of his PR decisions over the last two years,” the strategist added, arguing Biden and his aides did too little to sell his accomplishments in office.

“The selling of his presidency falls short, and this falls short,” the strategist said.

One Democratic consultant, asked about the weekend interview, was blunt: “He is adding nothing. Not a thing. And at this point, he’s making it worse.” 

Since Biden left office in January, Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with the former president as he has taken up oxygen with a string of public remarks and appearances.

In May interviews on the BBC and "The View," Biden shifted the focus away from the party’s rebuilding effort, some Democrats argue.

Biden sat for an interview with The New York Times last Thursday, responding to allegations made against him in the investigation of his use of an autopen to sign pardons. Republicans have levied Biden’s use of the autopen to bolster their narrative that Biden’s aides were running his administration.

The Democrats critical of Biden’s latest interview say the subject was tangential, at best, to the national discourse. And they say that the autopen investigation will have no bearing on voters in the 2026 midterms.  

“Democrats need to be on the offensive, and we cannot be running a rear guard operation to defend the Biden administration,” said Democratic strategist Garry South. “It’s not a helpful factor for him to reemerge publicly at this point, particularly in terms of … defending his administration.”

“There is still a lot of disappointment, if not downright anger, that he decided to run again and left the party in the position of having to switch horses midstream in last year's election, leading to the second term for Donald Trump,” South added.

Enthusiasm within the Democratic Party continues to wane in the wake of a devastating loss in 2025, a new poll by the Democratic super PAC Unite the Country revealed. Voters view Democrats as “weak,” “woke” and “out of touch,” the same poll showed, and there is a prevailing perception of the party as weak.

At a fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday, former President Obama criticized the party’s feeble strategy and urged Democrats to take a different approach in countering Trump. 

“‘I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions,” Obama said. “And it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up.’”

A few Democrats said Biden’s interview would hardly hurt the party.

“Trump's approvals are going down pretty precipitously. I don't think that Biden talking to the times about autopen is going to change that,” said David Litt, a speechwriter for Obama who recently published a new book, “It’s Only Drowning,” about searching for common ground during a politically divisive moment for the nation.

“It’s almost off to the side of this broader conversation that people will vote on in the midterms. … It's just kind of a niche subject, and … there are just so many bigger fish to fry in all directions,” Litt said.

Litt said he could even see a short-term scenario in which Biden’s response to the autopen investigation taken together with the Epstein controversy helps Democrats and hurts Trump.

Trump’s "willingness to go down any rabbit hole … unless that rabbit hole involves Jeffrey Epstein … is going to be the story this week,” said Litt. “And to the extent that Biden sort of highlights Trump's hypocrisy … I think that could actually turn out to be politically helpful for people who are not fans of Trump.”

“If the Republicans in Congress say, ‘We're going to investigate a bombshell,' and it's not the Epstein files, people's biggest question is going to be, ‘Why isn't it the Epstein files now?’ From both the right and the left,” Litt added. “So I actually think that it may coincidentally be a moment that highlights Trump's willingness to investigate everything other than Jeffrey Epstein.”

Other Democrats are harsher critics of Biden’s latest interview and his reemergence altogether.

They acknowledge that Biden will likely hold minimal influence over the midterms but worry that his appearances drag the party back to the very moment they are trying to build back from.

Party operatives also question Biden’s ability to be an effective counter to Trump, saying that he propagates the perception of Democrats as a weak contrast to Republicans.

“In his diminished state, he simply can't come off as a powerful voice against Trump, even though one can sympathize with his anger at how Trump and his partisans have tried to depict him,” South said. 

Litt said that Biden’s remarks are a bad attempt at a good strategy, one that indicates growth and a proactive posture within the party.

“A broader lesson that Democrats are learning is engaging more and earlier is better in this day and age,” said Litt. “It used to be that Democrats would see these conspiracy theories bubble up on the internet, and they would say, ‘OK, we'll just let it run its course.’” 

“What you're seeing in general from Democrats, and I suspect that Biden is an example of this ... is a recognition that these days, if somebody sort of right wing comments or tweets something that goes viral, it can very quickly become policy, and so you can't just let it run its course,” Litt added. “Internet trolls are really the tail-wagging dog of a lot of Trump administration policies here.”