NEW: Obama’s Top Adviser Suggests Biden Should Drop Out: ‘Stakes Too Dramatic To Ignore’

David Axelrod, the strategist who masterminded President Barack Obama’s come-from-behind victory over Hillary Clinton in 2008, said it’s time for President Joe Biden to throw in the towel amid new polling that shows the Democrat president badly trailing former President Donald Trump in five of six swing states.

Writing on X, Axelrod said it would be “wise” for President Biden to consider stepping aside and allowing the next generation of Democrats to jockey for their party’s nomination.

“Only @JoeBiden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?” Axelrod asked in a thread on X obtained by Fox News.

Only @JoeBiden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it's in HIS best interest or the country's?

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) November 5, 2023

“It’s very late to change horses,” added Axelrod but suggested that recent polling proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Biden is in trouble.

The embattled president trails President Trump in Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, all states he won in 2020. Biden holds just a two percent lead in Wisconsin. The numbers contain startling nuggets of data showing that Biden and Trump are essentially tied among young voters while the Republican frontrunner earns up to 22 percent support from Black voters in states where he leads. That amount is unprecedented for a Republican candidate in the post-Civil Rights era.

Axelrod orchestrated Obama’s plan to pick Biden as his vice presidential candidate in 2008, a move designed to shore up the lack of enthusiasm for him among working-class white voters. President Biden, who hails from Scranton, Pennsylvania, has spent decades in office leaning into his blue-collar roots, though today trails President Trump by dozens of points among white voters, especially those with less than a four-year college education.

Biden’s “biggest liability,” Axelrod added, is his advanced age. As the oldest-ever U.S. president, Biden has suffered a disastrous number of trips, stumbles, and other senior moments that have cemented concerns about his age into the minds of voters who believe by wide margins that he is not fit to serve a second four-year term. And while President Trump’s disapproval numbers from voters are also high, Axelrod said President Biden would be making a grave mistake to believe that voters who refuse to break for his likely opponent.

“[T]he stakes of miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore,” wrote Axelrod.