NBC News host confronts top Democrat on whether he had 'responsibility to be more forthcoming' about Biden
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was confronted with an old clip of himself during an interview on Sunday in which he declared President Biden was the best candidate to run against President-elect Donald Trump.
"What do you say to Americans who believe you and other top Democrats misled them?" NBC's Kristen Welker asked Jeffires after playing him a clip of himself from February 2024 on "The View" saying Biden was the "definitely the strongest candidate" to run against the now-president elect.
"Well, Joe Biden was the incumbent president at the time. He was the candidate at the time, and I supported him at the time, and that was the right thing to do, based on the incumbent president making the decision that he was going to run," Jeffries said, responding to the clip.
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Jeffries added that he wanted to look forward, rather than backwards, and focus on delivering for Americans after Trump's victory.
Welker pressed further, "Do you believe you had a responsibility to be more forthcoming about what you had seen behind closed doors as it relates to President Biden?"
"What I saw behind closed doors was a president who was working hard to get things done to deliver for the American people on infrastructure, on driving down the high price of life saving prescription drugs, on bringing domestic manufacturing jobs back home to the United States of America," Jeffries responded.
The NBC News host similarly confronted Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., with a clip of himself insisting concerns about Biden's mental acuity were "right wing propaganda."
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"His mental acuity is great. It’s fine. It’s as good as it’s been over the years. All this right-wing propaganda that his mental acuity has declined is wrong," Schumer declared in February 2024.
When asked what he would tell Americans who think they were misled by top Democrats, Schumer said, ""We didn't. Let's look at President Biden. He’s had an amazing record. The legislation we passed, one of the most significant groups of legislation since Lyndon Johnson’s great society, putting in 235 judges, a record, and he’s a patriot."
Welker then asked Schumer if he was confident Biden could have served a second term.
"Well I'm not going to speculate. As I said, I think his record is a stellar one, and he’ll go down in history as a really outstanding president," Schumer responded.