House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) argued Sunday that he was doing “the right thing” when he and many Democrats supported President Joe Biden in the 2024 election cycle before the president suspended his reelection bid a few months before Election Day.
Jeffries was confronted by comments he made in a February 2024 appearance on The View, during which he claimed Biden was “the strongest candidate” to defeat then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. When asked what he would say to voters who felt as if he and other Democrats “misled” them on Biden’s ability to perform well in the 2024 election, Jeffries cited how Biden was the candidate “at the time,” as Biden made the decision to seek reelection.
“Obviously, things changed in late June and early July, but I think what’s most important at this moment is not for us to look backward, but to look forward,” Jeffries said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Solve problems for hardworking American taxpayers and get things done. That’s what the American people want to happen. That’s the message that I interpret from the November election, and that’s the work that House Democrats are prepared to do to make sure we’re improving the quality of life for working-class Americans, not the wealthy, the well off, or the well connected.”
Biden dropped his reelection bid on July 21, less than a month after his first 2024 presidential debate against Trump, in which many were critical of Biden’s performance. Biden, who became the oldest president to get elected into office in 2020 at 77 years old, suggested his age was to blame for his debate performance.
When Jeffries was pressed on if he felt any responsibility for not telling voters what he saw from Biden behind closed doors, the minority leader said that he saw Biden “working hard” for the nation.
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A report from last month indicated that staffers in the White House worked to keep Biden from the public eye and even keep him from meeting with key Democrats. Former Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat up until May 2024, had concerns over Biden’s stamina and suggested presidential staffers became avid gatekeepers to the president.
Going forward, Jeffries stated that the Democratic Party will conduct an election for the chair of its Democratic National Committee “at the end of this month.” It comes as some, including Washington Examiner’s Byron York, have suggested that Democrats currently have “no one” to lead the opposition to President-elect Donald Trump and his vision for the nation.
