Overview

• Pete Buttigieg told NBC’s Meet the Press that Biden should not have sought reelection in 2024 and said the country might have been better off had Biden decided earlier not to run.
• He said he was not included in any discussions about whether Biden would run again, calling it solely Biden’s decision.
• The comments align with an excerpt from Kamala Harris’s forthcoming memoir that characterizes Biden’s choice to run as “recklessness.”
• Biden exited the race in July 2024 after a widely panned debate performance, leading Harris to head the ticket and lose to President Donald Trump.
• Buttigieg’s stance marks a sharper public break from earlier interviews in which he defended Biden’s acuity, as Harris’s book release on Sept. 23 keeps the issue in the spotlight.