Draft Biden, the group urging the vice president to run for the Democratic nomination in 2016, said Thursday they are pulling a TV ad that recalls Joe Biden’s painful personal story of loss in its pitch for his candidacy.
The story was first reported in the Los Angeles Times, which quoted a source close to Biden as saying he thought the ad “treads on sacred ground.”
In a statement, Draft Biden senior adviser Josh Alcorn said, “nobody has more respect for the Vice President and his family than we do. Obviously we will honor his wishes.”
The cable ad buy was first announced Wednesday.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest — who called the ad “compelling” — was among some prominent voices sounding off in support of the ad’s message.
“You don’t serve in the United States Senate for multiple decades and rise to the position of vice president of the United States without having a powerful story to tell,” Earnest said during the White House briefing Wednesday. “And certainly Vice President Biden’s personal story is as powerful as any story in American politics. And he also has a uniquely powerful way of telling that story and using it to inspire other people.”
But one notable Democratic strategist, CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod, said it was “tasteless.”
