Podcast host Jon Favreau advised fellow Democrats who are thinking of running for president in 2028 to distance themselves from former President Joe Biden and say he should not have run for president in 2024.
On the "Pod Save America" podcast, Favreau, a former speechwriter for former President Barack Obama, said Biden stayed in the last presidential race far too long.
Last July, Biden stepped aside after his less-than-impressive debate performance against then-candidate Donald Trump. Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, was handed the Democratic Party's nomination only a few months before the general election.
Democrats have spent the months since their defeat wringing their hands over when and how Biden should have stepped aside.
"The answer is, he shouldn't have run for a second term. And when he did run for a second term, he should have stepped down much earlier after the debate, and his close advisers shouldn't have told him to run again, and they shouldn't have told him he was going to win," Favreau said.
"I think that every Democratic politician, particularly those who want to lead the party and want to run in 2028, have to just rip the [expletive] Band-Aid off," Favreau added.
Many Democrats have criticized Biden for staying in the 2024 presidential race and not putting party before his own personal ambitions. Strategist Anthony Coley told The Hill this week that Biden and the party need to move on from each other.
"Elections are about the future. Every time Joe Biden emerges, we fight an old war. Every interview he does provides a contrast to Trump that's just not helpful for the Democratic brand, which needs trusted messengers and fighters who can reach independents and moderates and inspire the base. Joe Biden ain't that," Coley said.