Did Pete Buttigieg Really Say Biden Shouldn’t Have Run Again? Yes—And He’s Not Alone
A big claim started spreading online this week: that Pete Buttigieg, former Transportation Secretary under President Biden, said Biden should never have run for re-election. Some thought it was fake news. Others figured he was misquoted. But as it turns out, the story is true—and it’s pulling back the curtain on what really went wrong inside the Biden camp during the last election.
During an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Buttigieg was asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ new book. In the book, Harris describes Biden’s decision to run again as “reckless.” That’s a strong word to use about your former boss. But Buttigieg didn’t shy away from agreeing.
“He should not have run,” Buttigieg said plainly. “And if he had made that decision sooner, we might have been better off.”
This wasn’t a vague comment. Buttigieg made it clear that Biden’s decision to try for a second term may have hurt the Democratic Party. He pointed out that nobody else could make that decision for Biden, but that many people behind the scenes thought it was the wrong move.
When asked if he ever tried to talk Biden out of running, Buttigieg said he wasn’t even included in the decision-making process. “He made that decision,” Buttigieg added, “and I think I’m not alone in believing that he should have made the decision not to run sooner.”
Translation: people inside Biden’s circle had doubts, but no one had the power—or courage—to stop him.
And it’s not just Buttigieg. In her new book “107 Days,” Kamala Harris writes openly about how the people around Biden kept saying “It’s Joe and Jill’s decision,” like it was a polite way of avoiding a hard truth. Harris now admits she thinks it was “recklessness” to let Biden run again, especially given the high stakes for the country.
She wrote, “It should have been more than a personal decision. The stakes were simply too high.”
That’s quite a statement coming from someone who was second-in-command. It also shows how divided the Biden team really was, even if they pretended to be united in public.
But this honesty hasn’t gone over well with everyone. Former Biden officials told Axios that Harris is just trying to blame Biden for her own failures. One former White House aide said, “Vice President Harris was simply not good at the job.” They accused her of showing up for photo ops but not doing real work, and said she had no real role in any of the administration’s important tasks.
So, what does all this mean?
First, it confirms that the decision for Biden to run again was controversial—even among his own top people. Buttigieg and Harris are both saying that the Democratic Party would have been better off if Biden had stepped aside. But no one had the guts—or the power—to tell him to do it.
Second, it shows how broken the leadership was behind the scenes. Instead of coming together to make a strong plan, it looks like Biden’s team just hoped for the best and ignored the warning signs. And now, with Biden out of power and Trump back in the White House, Democrats are pointing fingers at each other instead of taking responsibility.
Finally, it reveals a deeper problem: many top Democrats knew Biden wasn’t up to the task, but they let him run anyway. Whether it was out of loyalty, fear, or ambition, they stayed quiet. Now, they’re speaking out—but only after the damage was done.
In the end, the viral story about Buttigieg wasn’t fake. He really did say Biden shouldn’t have run. And now, with Trump in office and the country moving in a new direction, Democrats are left to wonder what might have been if they’d spoken up sooner.