By Zoe Hussain. Media: Nypost
Former President Joe Biden’s return to the spotlight has some Democratic party insiders — including top aides — fuming that his presence is only dredging up old wounds, according to a report.
After keeping a low profile, Biden reemerged Tuesday with an anti-Trump speech in Chicago, followed by private remarks at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
But the reaction from within the Democratic party was less of a celebration and more of a panic-inducing event, with party operatives, strategists, and Biden loyalists saying his presence came at the worst time, The Hill reported.
“I love both Bidens dearly, but staff loyalty means there is a responsibility to provide them with an honest situational awareness, especially when it comes to their public image, no matter how hurtful it is to hear,” Michael LaRosa, who served as Jill Biden’s communications director, told the outlet.
LaRosa argued that any advisors with a pulse on the Democratic party should have known that many people remain “furious or indifferent” to the former president.
While speaking at Harvard, Biden had to be corrected by his longtime adviser Mike Donilon when he mixed up Ukraine with Iraq when talking about the war with Russia, the Harvard Crimson reported.
After the 82-year-old former president bit into an ice cream bar at the event, the partially eaten dessert fell to the floor, the Crimson noted.

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“This was hard to watch,” one former White House official told the Post of the speech, where Biden also reminisced about “colored kids.”
“It felt like seeing someone you care about start to regress. We just wanted him to enjoy retirement like other presidents — not go out like this,” the official said.
The mix-up only added to the Trump administration and conservatives’ attempt to use the unpopular ex-president’s appearance as a distraction from recent tariff turmoil, LaRosa added.

LinkedIn/Michael LaRosa
Biden’s return was a “lovely gift for the White House, President Trump, and conservative media at a time when they were playing defense and under the kind of heavy scrutiny over the botched tariff policy in ways we haven’t seen since Trump was elected,” he said.
LaRosa lamented that Biden’s handlers should recognize the end of his political career and act accordingly.
“It’s a heartbreaking and tragic ending to their time in public life, but it’s also the truth, and they should index the political realities into their decision-making,” the former aide continued.
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