White House apologizes to Asa Hutchinson after snarky DNC statement

WASHINGTON — The White House took the unusual step Wednesday of apologizing to former Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson over a snarky news release that President Joe Biden’s party sent out after he withdrew from the race.

Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff, called Hutchinson in the morning to offer an apology over the Democratic National Committee’s one-sentence statement following the former Arkansas governor's announcement Tuesday that he was ending his 2024 campaign after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses the previous night.

“This news comes as a shock to those of us who could’ve sworn he had already dropped out,” the DNC said in a statement released by national press secretary Sarafina Chitika.

Chitika did not respond to a request for comment about the release.

A Biden adviser said in an interview that no one at the DNC would lose their job over the statement, chalking up the episode to a mistake made in a fast-moving, highly charged campaign season.

Hutchinson won 0.2 percent of the vote in Iowa, finishing in sixth place. He had waged an atypical campaign in the Donald Trump era, openly criticizing the ex-president even as other GOP presidential hopefuls faring better in the polls tip-toed around the legal troubles and controversies surrounding the party's front-runner in the polls.

Hutchinson, 73, ran as a more traditional Republican, hewing to a certain civility on the campaign trail that Trump and his MAGA movement have long eschewed.

For that reason, the DNC statement appeared gratuitous and a bit off-brand given Biden’s promise to unify and heal a divided nation. A throwback of sorts, Hutchinson epitomized the sort of establishment Republican that Biden grew to respect during his 36