Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) has weighed in on Democrats’ 2024 defeat to Donald Trump as a new book on former President Joe Biden’s failing health reignites the debate on why the party lost.
Pritzker, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, said the “problem” was that Biden failed to give his then-Vice President Kamala Harris enough time to “introduce herself” to the American public after he dropped out, despite her high-profile position in his administration.
The billionaire, who was on the Harris campaign’s short list for a running mate last year, said with only 108 days of the campaign remaining, the former vice president was handed a “near impossible” task to get her message out.
The book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” documents Biden’s mental and physical deterioration and last-minute decision to step away from the presidential race.
The central argument of the book, co-authored by Axios’ Alex Thompson and CNN’s Jake Tapper, is that Biden’s inner circle covered up the full extent of his worsening condition.
To that point, the book claims internal discussions took place about putting Biden in a wheelchair during the 2024 campaign.
Journalist Kasie Hunt asked Pritzker about the explosive book on CNN’s “The Arena” on Tuesday.
Drawing from his own experience of running for governor, Pritzker, the heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, replied that candidates need to take part in primary elections “so people can see you operate.”
“When Biden dropped out and essentially asked Kamala Harris to step up, which was the right thing to do if he’s going to step away, people didn’t know who she was,” he said.
“And with 108 days left, it was near impossible for her to introduce herself. If you asked 100 people on the street, ‘Do they know who the vice president is?’ most people have no idea. And they didn’t know much about Kamala Harris, honestly.”
Pritzker added Harris was left to “tell everybody who she is, withstand all the scrutiny and attacks that were coming from the other side, and had only 108 days to accomplish the goal of winning.”
“That is the problem that occurred,” he added.
Pritzker dismissed the arguments that Democrats got the messaging wrong, or that Harris was the wrong candidate, as “there weren’t a lot of other alternatives because Joe Biden didn’t run.”
When asked what he knew of Biden’s health issues, Pritzker said he only experienced “a guy who brought to the table a lot of good ideas about how to solve problems.”
Ahead of the book’s release, Biden told the BBC last week that he didn’t think it would have mattered if he had dropped out of the presidential race sooner.
Biden, who turned 82 in November, dropped out of the presidential race last summer following a calamitous debate performance.
