Latina Senior Advisor Quits Joe Biden’s Presidential Campaign

If Joe Biden wants to secure his nomination for President of the United States from the Democratic party, he better gets his act together. The former Vice President seems to be losing a lot of perspective when it comes to reaching the Latinx voters and will be struggling even more now that his Vanessa Cárdenas, his senior advisor, has quit his team.

According to several news outlets, Cárdenas, “the most senior Latina Biden staffer,” left the Biden campaign because she was “frustrated over her lack of input and with the presidential candidate’s immigration rhetoric,” Politico reports.

Just this weekend, we saw a viral clip of Biden telling a Latino at his rally to “go vote for Trump.” The intense confrontation occurred on Nov. 21 at a town hall in Greenwood, South Carolina, when protester Carlos Rojas criticized Biden over the Obama-era deportations.

“You should vote for Trump,” Joe Biden tells @CosechaMovement protester Carlos Rojas at tonight’s town hall in Greenwood, S.C.

Rojas and other protesters from the group were criticizing Obama-era deportations and asked Biden to say he’d end all deportations — which he rejected. pic.twitter.com/od188WIlrQ

— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) November 22, 2019

Journalist Adrian Carrasquillo tweeted, “According to someone with knowledge of Vanessa Cardenas frustration from her time within Biden camp, there was concern the campaign is not welcoming on any suggestions on tone, immigration messaging, and they’re defensive on Obama deportations. He also added, “there was mention of how frustrated they were with Jorge Ramos pummeling from September debate. The thing is Latino staff/activists know Ramos would ask Qs like this since he did of Obama. A feeling from people who have spoken with Vanessa Cardenas was also the belief that Biden camp is taking Latinos for granted. Biden telling a Latino immigration activist ‘You should vote for Trump’ came after Vanessa Cardenas decided to leave, but like Caputo said, it underscored the reasons for leaving.”

Biden still has at least two Latinx advisors, including Cristóbal Alex and Laura Jiménez, but the damage is setting in. Biden isn’t hitting his marks like he was just months ago. Sen. Elizabeth Warren continues to lead, and Biden has fallen to No. 5.

While some may speculate that his drama with President Donald Trump and his inquiries about his son may be one of the reasons for his decline in the presidential race, the issues can be seen during the debates. Biden takes advantage that he was the Vice President under the Obama Administration but didn’t admit to any blame about the deportations that occurred under his watch.

At the town hall meeting, he responded to Rojas by saying that he would not “stop all deportations,” but would “prioritize deportations, only people who have committed a felony or serious crime.”