Fmr. Obama Campaign Manager David Axelrod Burns Biden for Stumbling Debate: ‘Mr. Magoo-ing His Way Through’

CNN’s post-debate panel picked apart what has roundly criticized as a poor debate performance by former Vice President Joe Biden, with political analysts Van Jones and David Axelrod offering their own devastating takes on his bumbling performance.

“If I’m [Michael] Bloomberg and I’m watching, I say to myself you’ve got Biden doing pretty well, Pete [Buttigieg] doing pretty well. Where is the room for the moderate to come in?” Jones said of the billionaire and former New York City mayor who is a late entrant to the Democratic primary. “And then Biden blows four tires in the last 10 minutes. If you’re Bloomberg you start looking and going, ‘Hey man….”

“Or Deval Patrick. You say how many times can Biden do that and survive?” Jones added, referencing the latest to join the 2020 race.

“This is akin to the Booker point,” Axelrod then weighed in. “Biden, I wouldn’t say he was a house of fire in any of the debates that we’ve been to. And yet he comes — kind of bumps along, kind of Mr. Magooing his way through this. You keep worrying he’s going to hit a wall, but he’s moving forward.”

“Obviously, he’s losing some altitude in Iowa, New Hampshire, that should be concerning to him,” Axelrod added. “But if he can survive those states because of his strong support in the African-American community and because he has a cultural kinship with working class whites, non-college whites, you know, he has a play here.”

“By the way, I’ve never heard Mr. Magoo turned into a verb,” said a clearly amused Anderson Cooper wrapping up, eliciting chuckles across the assembled panel.

Watch the video above, via CNN.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com