Pete Buttigieg told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker that President Biden “should not have run” for reelection in 2024, but conceded that “it was literally his decision” to do so. Biden dropped out of the race in July 2024.
“He should not have run. And if he had made that decision sooner, we might have been better off. But it literally was his decision,” Buttigieg said.
“Nobody else was able to make that decision. And now in front of us, we’re confronted with the decisions that come next, whether that’s inside of a political party or movement or as we’re all weighing right now, in our own lives, as Americans, as a country. And that’s where we’ve got to focus.”
Welker also asked if Buttigieg played any role in Biden’s decision-making, or was privy to related conversations.
“I was not included in the process of deciding whether the president should run again. He made that decision and I think I’m not alone in believing that he should have made the decision not to run sooner,” he said. :But look, we are where we are as a country and as a party right now. And what matters now is how we build a different kind of future where people, I mean, not just politically, but nationally, where people can see themselves in what comes next.”
The admission comes days after a portion of Kamala Harris’ upcoming election memoir “107 Days” was released. The decision to stay in the race was up to Biden and his wife, she clarified.
“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris put it. “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.”
“During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running?” she continued. “Perhaps.”
