In a gripping Sunday interview, NBC’s Kristen Welker took House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Chuck Schumer to task, pressing both on whether they had misled the American public about President Joe Biden’s fitness for office in the months leading up to the 2024 election.
Jeffries Confronted Over Biden Endorsement
Welker didn’t pull any punches. She kicked off the interview by airing a February 2024 clip of Jeffries on The View, where he confidently called Biden “definitely the strongest candidate” to run against Donald Trump.
Then she posed the pivotal question:
“What do you say to Americans who believe you and other top Democrats misled them?”
Jeffries defended his position.
“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,” he replied.
While Jeffries tried to steer the conversation forward, focusing on what’s next for Americans post-election, Welker wasn’t finished pressing him.
“Should You Have Been More Forthcoming?”
Welker followed up with another sharp inquiry:
“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?”
Jeffries doubled down on his defense, claiming Biden was active and focused during his term.
“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,” he asserted.
Schumer Also Under Fire
The scrutiny didn’t stop with Jeffries. Welker also aired a past statement from Senator Chuck Schumer, who had dismissed concerns about Biden’s cognitive health.
“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 said in the February 2024 clip.
When asked how he would respond to voters who now feel deceived, Schumer answered:
“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.”
Confidence in Biden’s Future Role?
Wrapping up the segment, Welker put one last question to Schumer, pressing whether he still had confidence Biden could have served a second term.
Schumer refrained from speculating, saying:
“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.”
