Political blowback over how former President Joe Biden’s staff handled concerns about his age before the 2024 election, as revealed in a new book, could pose challenges to Pete Buttigieg and other Democrats with ties to the former president who are eyeing a 2028 presidential run, experts say.
Newsweek reached out to Buttigieg’s Win the Era PAC for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Democrats’ loss in the 2024 election has been blamed, in part, on Biden’s decision to run for reelection despite voters’ concerns about his health, fueled by his widely panned performance in a debate against President Donald Trump in June 2024 that eventually led to his exit from the race.
A new book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, written by Jake Tapper and Axios journalist Alex Thompson, alleges that Biden’s inner circle orchestrated a comprehensive effort to obscure the president’s condition from the public, donors and members of his cabinet.
The book has rekindled debate about whether Democrats should have more forcefully spoken about their concerns about Biden’s age.
Early excerpts of the book notably do not mention Buttigieg, who served as Biden’s transportation secretary, as having any knowledge about Biden’s condition. But some experts believe the backlash could still be troubling for him in 2028, as he is the one cabinet member most speculated to be considering a presidential bid.
What To Know
Although the 2028 presidential race is still years away, some pundits are already discussing whether the Biden saga could haunt Democrats in the next election. Political analyst Chuck Todd said this week on his podcast, The Chuck ToddCast, that it will be a “question anybody who worked directly for Biden” must answer if they choose to run for president.
“Gina Raimondo, if she thinks about running for president, Pete Buttigieg, all of these cabinet secretaries are now going to have to answer for all of this,” he said. “I do wonder if it’s going to make anybody that touches Biden persona non grata. Not just anybody directly in the Biden world.”
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks at the Democratic National Convention on August 21, 2024.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Buttigieg is already fielding questions about Biden’s condition.
He told reporters this week that during his tenure in the administration, whenever he needed anything from the White House, he “got it,” praising Biden’s collaboration with his department on supporting Baltimore after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse last year.
“The same president that the world saw addressing that was the president I was in the Oval with, insisting that we do a good job and do right by Baltimore. That’s characteristic of my experience with him,” he said.
He said the party “maybe” would have been better off had Biden chosen not to run again and that “most people would agree that that’s the case” in hindsight.
Experts were split on whether the situation could cost Democrats in 2028.
Grant Davis Reeher, professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Newsweek the Biden drama has made it more difficult to “legitimize” the Democrats’ brand as the “party of truth” against a “dishonest Trump.”
This political blowback could hurt any Democratic candidate, but Reeher said some cabinet secretaries may have “plausible deniability” if they did not have regular access to the president.
“What’s becoming clearer about the Biden presidency is a systematic, persistent effort to hide something important from the public, and a denial about the reality that extended down to party activists,” he said.
Candidates like Buttigieg should “not try to dismiss or discount” these concerns “by pointing to worse lies from Trump,” he said. Instead, they should pledge to be honest about their own health and to be “as open and exposed to the press as Trump has been. “
Anne Danehy, senior associate dean and associate professor of the practice at Boston University’s College of Communications, told Newsweek that voters will likely have moved on to other issues by then.
“Voters are really just concerned about ‘What will you do to make my life better,'” Danehy said. “I don’t think that they’re going to remember anything. They’re going to be asking ‘What are you going to do to address the issues in our lives?”
Buttigieg could address these concerns by saying he did not have indications about any potential decline at the time, and that Biden had won the primary before exiting the race.
Is Pete Buttigieg Running for President?
Buttigieg gave an update about whether he’s running for president this week, after a trip to Iowa fueled speculation he may be inching toward a run. While speaking Tuesday with Anand Giridharadas on Substack, Buttigieg said he is assessing “the office and what it calls for.”
“The other thing you’re mapping against all of that is…your life. I mean the stakes are always high for somebody thinking about running for visible political office, but they’re fundamentally different when you’ve got a spouse and kids. Having kids can motivate you to run, but it can also motivate you to spend more time at home,” Buttigieg said.
Polls suggest he would be an early favorite to clinch the nomination if he chooses to run.
In a poll by Echelon Insights taken from May 8 to May 12 among 1,000 voters “in the likely electorate,” Buttigieg had 10 percent of the vote versus other potential candidates. Former Vice President Kamala Harris had 32 percent, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had 8 percent. The poll had a 3.8 percent margin of error.
Buttigieg, then the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, rose to national prominence due to his long-shot presidential bid in 2020.
Although he had little name recognition heading into the primary, his message appeared to resonate with some Democrats, as he won the Iowa caucus and placed second in the New Hampshire primary. He dropped out of the race in March 2020 after receiving only 8 percent support in the South Carolina primary.
What People Are Saying
Robert Y. Shapiro, a professor of political science at Columbia University, told Newsweek: “Few, if any, will face this criticism, and they can deflect any concerns about this with many far more important national issues to talk about.”
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this week: “Democrats do not have the best brand around here or in a lot of places. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Some fair, and some not fair.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters when asked about Biden on Monday: “We’re not looking backward. We’re looking forward at this particular moment in time.”
Strategist Matthew Yglesias wrote in a Substack post: “On the one hand, he’s clearly one of the most talented and skilled communicators that the Democratic Party has. On the other hand, he was a cabinet officer in a failed administration. Not an administration that was bereft of good ideas or good policies, but an administration that was unpopular and rejected at the polls and that completely failed to achieve its stated core objective of rescuing American democracy from the threat of Donald Trump.”
What Happens Next
Democrats, including Buttigieg, may announce or lay the groundwork for their presidential runs over the coming years. The 2028 primary will likely heat up after the 2026 midterms, when Democrats hope for a 2018-style “blue wave.”
