CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown took turns asking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Wednesday how voters can trust Democrats after they insisted President Joe Biden was mentally fit to stay president ahead of his dropping out in 2024.
Blitzer noted that a new book from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson includes some brutal details about Biden’s decline. “From the book, President Biden didn’t even recognize George Clooney at a fundraiser that the movie star was actually hosting for him. Why should voters trust Democrats when it’s clear so many in your party went to great lengths to keep Biden’s condition hidden, hidden from the public?” Blitzer asked.
“I can’t tell you what happened between George Clooney and President Biden that wasn’t at that event. What I can say is that we’re not looking back. We’re gonna continue to look forward because at this moment, we’ve got real problems that need to be addressed on behalf of the American people, including the Republican effort to snatch away healthcare, snatch away food assistance and hurt veterans,” replied Jeffries.
“You interacted with President Biden during those days, those final days he was president of the United States. Did you see, did you sense there was a major deterioration?” Blitzer followed up.
“Well, in the conversations that I was able to have on behalf of the House Democratic
Brown tried again on the issue of trust, asking, “Just very quickly, I want to ask you, Congressman Jeffries, you know, you say we’re not looking back, we’re looking forward, but what happened in the past has to do with what’s going to happen in the future and whether voters can trust Democrats. As you look back, you were in a leadership position when President Biden decided to run again. Should you have done more at that point to intervene?”
“It’s a great question in terms of whether voters can trust Democrats or not,” Jeffries replied before listing Democrats’ recent success at the polls:
Every single high-profile special election that has taken place since President Trump was inaugurated, a special election victory in Iowa in January, a Special Election victory in New York in February, a Special Election Victory in Pennsylvania in March, a Special Election, victory in Wisconsin in the Supreme Court race in April. And yesterday, decisively defeating a Republican incumbent in Omaha, and a surprise to many observers, clearly voters are trusting Democrats. This year, when they go to the ballot,
repeatedly rejecting MAGA extremists.
Watch the clip above via CNN.