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Pete Buttigieg served for four years under President Biden, but the former transportation secretary only mentioned his boss once, in passing, during a nearly 90-minute veterans event recently in Iowa.
However, he could not avoid looming questions about Mr. Biden’s historic fall from grace when members of the media asked him whether Mr. Biden experienced cognitive decline in office, and whether the Democratic Party would have been better off if their aging leader had never mounted a reelection run.
Who knew what and when about Mr. Biden’s physical and mental erosion is now an early test for likely 2028 presidential contenders who will need to restore the public’s trust in a party accused of covering up what voters eventually saw with their own eyes.
“It is an interesting question for Democrats in 2028,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “Democratic candidates’ best answer is, ’I was not close to Biden personally at the time,’ but the people around him told everybody he was functional, he was well, he was on his game.”
“Usually it is to a Democrat’s advantage to display close proximity to the former president of the U.S., but in this case, it is the opposite,” he said. “The public is going to be looking for someone who is going to be forthright.”
The questions are particularly poignant for Mr. Buttigieg and other former Cabinet members who regularly interacted with Mr. Biden and other Democrats who vouched for the 82-year-old’s mental fitness, including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
Mr. Buttigieg told reporters in Cedar Rapids that every time he needed something from Mr. Biden, “I got it. ” He said the closest he worked with Mr. Biden was following the catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
“I will tell you the same president the world saw addressing that was the president I was in the Oval with, insisting that we do a good and do right by Baltimore, and that is characteristic of my experience with him,” Mr. Buttigieg said.
As for whether Mr. Biden would have helped the party by not seeking reelection, Mr. Buttigieg said, “Maybe.”
“Right now, with the benefit of hindsight, most people would agree that is the case,” he said. “We also are not in a position to wallow in hindsight. We have to get ready for some fundamental test for the future of this country and this party.”
Questions about Mr. Biden’s age and overall health dogged his presidency and reelection campaign against President Trump, who had a field day mocking the Democrat’s mental fitness.
The fixation on his decline has jumped following revelations in the recently released book “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” in which journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes explain how White House officials started becoming aware Mr. Biden was slowing down and having difficulties in 2023.
Meanwhile, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s forthcoming book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” digs into his mental and physical deterioration, his inner circles’ attempts to hide it, and his ultimate decision to pull out of the presidential race.
The book features anecdotes about how aides privately discussed putting Mr. Biden in a wheelchair if he won a second term and an occasion in which Mr. Biden appeared not to recognize George Clooney at a fundraiser the Academy Award winner was co-hosting for him.
The stories fall into the “I told you so” category for Trump world and critics who say Mr. Biden’s stubborn pursuit of another term has tarnished the party’s brand. They have also put the next crop of White House aspirants in the awkward position of explaining what exactly was going on with Mr. Biden and how they thought he could lead the nation.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois said he did not spend much time with Mr. Biden.
“I saw him a few times,” Mr. Pritzker said on CNN. “I certainly went to the White House whenever there was an opportunity for me to make the case for something, for people in my state, and I never had the experience of anything other than a guy who brought to the table a lot of good ideas about how to solve problems.”
However, Mr. Pritzer said that in retrospect, Mr. Biden put the party in a tough spot by waiting so long to drop out of the race.
“I think the one thing I would say is certainly either he needed to be the Democratic nominee, as he promised he would be, or he needed to drop out before the Democratic primaries,” Mr. Pritzker said.
In a recent appearance on the BBC, Mr. Newsom said he was surprised by Mr. Biden’s debate debacle.
“I never had. Period. Full-stop. I would be lying to you, and I won’t lie to you, as it relates to the direct engagement I had with Joe Biden, that ever suggested a cognitive decline to the degree that we saw at that debate night,” Mr. Newsom said. “So that was a challenging moment.”
That is a dramatic shift from June 27, 2004, when Mr. Newsom told reporters in the post-debate spin room in Atlanta that Mr. Biden won the debate on substance.
At the time, Mr. Newsom said Mr. Biden “reminded people of his accomplishments and vision for the future” and shot down the idea that performance should send the party into a panic.
“To me, that was just daylight and darkness,” Mr. Newsom said of the Biden-Trump showdown. “We have to have the back of this president. You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?” he said.
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