On Sunday, former White House Press Secretary turned MSNBC host Jen Psaki delivered live commentary on President Biden’s announcement to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Psaki claimed there was “very little indication” that Biden was planning on stepping down before his statement as she was taken aback by the shocking news.
To Psaki’s point, Biden had remained defiant in the face of inner-party criticism that he should step down and allow a more viable candidate to take on former President Donald Trump in November. Following the first presidential debate, which was disastrous for Biden, many Democrats lost faith in his ability to win reelection and serve a second term in the White House.
“There’s very little indication from people close to him and many people in the campaign that this was about to happen, as much as there were reports of Democrats calling on him to do that,” Psaki stated after reading Biden’s Sunday afternoon post on X. She then told her guest, The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, that she had no prior knowledge of Biden’s decision.
“I don’t think either of us had any indication,” Psaki said. “And I am always a believer that you have to share with the public what you know, and what you don’t know. We knew that there were lots of calls, but we had not been given any official indication, even as of 10 minutes ago, that decision had been made. I even spoke with Keisha Lance Bottoms earlier this hour, and asked her if she had any indication, and she is a senior adviser, and she had not.”
Still in disbelief, the former Biden press secretary added that in the time she worked under the president, she viewed him as a great leader with a strong track record. “I am digesting this myself here, because I worked for him for a year and a half, and he is a remarkable person, a remarkable president. He has had such a tremendous presidency where he has overcome the odds and defied people’s expectations. People didn’t think he could pass an infrastructure bill, they didn’t think that he could lead through COVID, they didn’t think he could pull the countries together,” Psaki explained.
The MSNBC host became visibly emotional from the news, appearing to get choked up during her remarks. “He did all of those things and will continue to do those things and also, is a deeply good human being, and I am digesting this myself. I just want to share that,” she said. Like Psaki, many were shocked by the unexpected announcement from Biden, who maintained that he would stay in the race.
Biden posted on X Sunday afternoon, “My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Watch Psaki’s comments below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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