Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said it's "obvious" now that former President Joe Biden was in no condition to run for reelection in 2024, adding that Democrats need to be "honest" about the party's mistake.
Khanna, a surrogate for the Biden campaign in 2024, made the remarks in a post to X on Wednesday night as excerpts from a new book continued to roll out highlighting how Biden's mental deterioration was getting noticed by his inner circle as far back as his 2020 presidential campaign.
"In my limited public interactions with the President, he appeared coherent. It is obvious now to me, based on @jaketapper and others reporting, that he was not in a condition to run for reelection, and he should have made the decision not to. We must be honest with people about our party's mistake," Khanna said in the post.
Tapper and Alex Thompson's book, "Original Sin," is set to be released on May 20.
Among the Biden revelations that have surfaced so far:
- Biden's Cabinet was kept away from him for the final two years of his presidency;
- Biden had forgotten the names of many people, including two longtime aides;
- Actor and major Biden fundraiser George Clooney was shaken that Biden didn't recognize him;
- Biden aides were considering a wheelchair had he won the 2024 election.
"We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite — he was a very effective president," a spokesperson for Biden told CNN.
Regardless, Biden's mental acuity was laid bare on June 27, 2024, during his debate with now-President Donald Trump, shocking Democrat leaders who, to that point, had no idea how bad Biden's decline had been.
Even after that performance, Biden's adviser of 40 years Mike Donilon, whose name Biden also had forgotten in 2019, according to the book, promised Democrats that Biden was fine.
Then-Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democrat candidate weeks later.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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