Obama alum Van Jones tells Biden to ‘stay hidden’ during campaign: ‘Not a great messenger’

Back to the basement, Joe.

That’s the opinion of one former Obama administration official after former President Donald Trump won Tuesday’s New Hampshire Republican primary.

“If I were Biden, I would stay hidden,” CNN pundit Van Jones said during the network’s election coverage. “And I’ll tell you why: He doesn’t inspire confidence, and he’s not a great messenger for himself.” 

Jones, a former special adviser for green jobs in the Obama White House, added that “there’s something wrong with this campaign, where we’re somehow expecting Joe Biden — and frankly, he hid during the last campaign — to start, [to] come out now and be Flash Gordon, and save this — his own campaign.

“The people who are benefiting from the Biden economy, and they exist, should be empowered to speak,” he concluded.

Former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield objected to Jones’ point, saying: “I think Biden ran a very disciplined campaign. I think — the sort of ‘Oh, he hid in the basement?’ Well, remember, we were in the midst of a global pandemic. We were in the midst of a once-in-a-generation crisis. And frankly, the way Joe Biden handled it was reassuring to people, and was a big part of the reason that he was elected president in 2020.”