Former President Barack Obama gave a blunt speech to a group of Democratic donors, telling them the party needs to "toughen up" and stop waiting on a hero to come in and save them, and the former president's one-time strategist David Axelrod weighed in on the matter on CNN on Monday afternoon.
Essentially, he argued, Obama accused his party of shirking away from the hard duty of rolling up their sleeves and fighting for what they believe in.
"What do you make of the former president doing this in this way and doing it now?" asked anchor Kasie Hunt.
"Well, it's telling that he did it at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee that was set up to support candidates, particularly the two gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, Mikie Sherrill and Spanberger in Virginia," said Axelrod. "And so, I mean, if you read through all of it, I think part of what he's saying is the way that you, the way you resist, is by electing people who are going to pursue a different policy. And, you know, so 'toughen up' and you know, 'stop navel-gazing' and so on means focus on the task at hand. And, you know, he talked very specifically about that."
"The thing I found most interesting about it, Kasie, was there were a couple of lines in there," Axelrod continued. "He said, stop looking for the quick fix, stop looking for the Messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support these candidates. And, you know, there's been a lot of discussion about why isn't he out more? I think his view, and I've had these discussions with him in the past, is that there are always new leaders, and you need to lift up these new leaders, and these new leaders have to lead. And it is not, it is not appropriate or wise to look back and say, well, you come back and do it again."
"In a sense, that was, to me, an explanation for why he's picked his shots and why he has sort of he's been a little circumspect and not out there constantly," he added. "Because he believes that there are voices within the Democratic Party who can step up and lead at this point and into the future."
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