David Axelrod - CNN Senior Political Commentator
David Axelrod
CNN Senior Political Commentator
David Axelrod, a former senior advisor to President Obama, is director of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics and host of The Axe Files podcast
Latest
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Axelrod says this is what Biden needs to do during his State of the Union speech to appeal to voters
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Mar 8, 2024
CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod tells John King what President Joe Biden needs to focus on tomorrow during his State of the Union speech to appeal to voters, as the country faces a likely Biden-Trump 2024 rematch.
Opinion: The dirty little secret the Michigan primary revealed
Feb 29, 2024
While Michigan advanced both Biden and Trump to the nominations of their parties Tuesday night, the votes they failed to capture underscored a painful truth, writes David Axelrod.
Opinion: Robert Hur’s gratuitous report
Feb 10, 2024
Robert Hur may think Biden’s memory is faulty, but it’s a safe bet the president will never forget the shiv the special counsel stuck into the Biden re-election campaign, writes David Axelrod.
Opinion: Iowa may decide if there’s a GOP alternative to Trump
Jan 11, 2024
The rapiers may be drawn and sharpened like never before when Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis face each other alone for the first time, writes David Axelrod.
Opinion: There’s a lot of good news for Nikki Haley. But here’s the bad news.
Dec 5, 2023
Ahead of Wednesday’s GOP’s fourth presidential debate, David Axelrod writes that former UN ambassador Nikki Haley will enter as the best performer in the previous matchups but still facing some big obstacles.
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‘Is this the right thing to do?’: Axelrod poses questions for Biden around reelection
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Nov 6, 2023
Former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod joins CNN This Morning to discuss whether President Joe Biden should stay in the 2024 race after a New York Times-Siena College poll showed Biden struggling in key battleground states against Donald Trump.
Opinion: The lesson Obama could teach DeSantis
Aug 14, 2023
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is following a familiar playbook, placing all chips on Iowa as he tries to right his presidential campaign, writes David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama.
David Axelrod: After Barack Obama, America will never be the same
May 20, 2023
David Axelrod, former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, writes that under extraordinary pressures, Obama more than measured up as both a president of the United States and a role model to millions of Black and Hispanic children.
Opinion: If Biden’s so unpopular, why isn’t any Democrat posing a serious challenge?
Apr 21, 2023
President Joe Biden, expected to announce his 2024 reelection campaign next week, has only two Democratic challengers so far, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson. Why doesn’t he have primary challenges despite his low approval ratings and a struggling economy?
Opinion: The sports whiz who might just save Major League Baseball
Apr 1, 2023
CNN’s David Axelrod writes that Theo Epstein, who became a legend by bringing championships to the title-starved Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs through the use of advanced data analytics, is now applying the mining skills he and his crew of baseball-loving math nerds developed to save the game.
Opinion: Lori Lightfoot’s fatal political mistake
Mar 1, 2023
David Axelrod writes that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her reelection bid because of her clenched-fist, go-it-alone style of leadership that made consensus hard to build and drove many who should have been her allies away.
Opinion: The mistake Biden must avoid in his big speech
Feb 2, 2023
In the lead up to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech next week, David Axelrod writes that the President must avoid making the speech all about himself and his accomplishments.
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Hear former Obama adviser’s caution to Biden amid classified documents issue
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Jan 14, 2023
Former Obama adviser and CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod tells CNN’s Wolf Blitzer why he would advise President Joe Biden against staying quiet about the classified documents found at his home and private office and the related special counsel review.
David Axelrod: In a lifetime of politics, this one sublime moment shines through
Jan 3, 2023
Fifteen years ago, Barack Obama stunned the world by winning the Iowa Democratic caucuses, writes David Axelrod. He says recalls that night “not only as a fond memory but as a reminder of what America can be.”
About
David Axelrod is a veteran of politics and journalism and the former chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama. He currently serves as director of the University of Chicago’s non-partisan Institute of Politics and as the host of The Axe Files, a podcast jointly produced by CNN and his institute. Axelrod, a former political writer for the Chicago Tribune and media strategist behind 150 state, local and national campaigns, also is the author of The New York Times best-selling memoir, “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”