Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said ex-President Biden “failed this country in the most important job that he had” and should not have run for reelection in 2024.
“Just to be clear, Biden should not have run again. And to be even more clear, he failed this country in the most important job that he had,” O’Rourke told “Pod Save America” in a clip shared by the podcast.
“We might very well lose the greatest country that this world has ever known. And it might be in part because of the decision that Biden and those around him made to run for reelection,” the Texas Democrat added.
O’Rourke’s comments come as Democrats face scrutiny over Biden’s 2024 reelection bid and his fitness for a second term in office following revelations from new and forthcoming books that detail the end of the Biden presidency.
“If anything was clear coming out of 2024, [people] wanted change. And to literally run the oldest guy who many people, accurately, to your point, said ‘I just don’t think he is capable of doing this.’ … I think that credibility problem is going to persist up until when Democrats say ‘we f—ed up and we made a terrible mistake,’” said O’Rourke, who ran for president in the 2020 cycle.
Last week, “Pod Save America” host Jon Favreau advised Democrats with hopes of running for president in 2028 to “rip the f—ing Band-Aid off” and say Biden shouldn’t have run, or should have stepped down “much earlier.”
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy (D), both seen as potential 2028 contenders, also faced questions this week about Biden’s fitness and decision.
Meanwhile, the former president has been stepping back into the spotlight, to the chagrin of many in the party.
During an appearance on “The View” last week, Biden pushed back against cognitive decline claims stemming from new books, while former first lady Jill Biden denied suggestions that she created “a cocoon around him” amid the scrutiny.
