Former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke (left) and potential 2028 presidential candidate Rep. Ro Khanna said President Joe Biden should not have run for re-election in 2024. (Getty Images)
When pressed by Martha MacCallum on "The Story" on Wednesday about campaigning for Biden in 2024, Khanna said he hadn't had the full picture of Biden's health and mental acuity ahead of his disastrous debate performance, but he admitted, "We should be honest as a party that we made a mistake."
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"I do think it's important that, given what has come out, that we take accountability," Khanna said. "Obviously, he should not have run," Khanna said.
Responding to a series of interview clips from early 2024, when Khanna affirmed Biden's intention to run for re-election and described the president as "fully coherent," Khanna said he had been telling the truth.
"Of course, I didn't have the full picture," Khanna added.
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke speaks to attendees during a "Our Fight, Our Future" rally at The Millennium bowling alley on October 2, 2024, in Austin, Texas (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
An excerpt from Tapper and Thompson's book released by Axios this week revealed that Biden's declining health was "so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn't do so until after the election."
In hindsight, Khanna and O'Rourke agreed that Democrats should have had an opportunity to launch their own presidential bids. And now that President Donald Trump has returned to the White House, and an already crowded field of potential 2028 Democratic candidates are mulling presidential campaigns, they said it's important to take accountability for 2024.
"Obviously, there should have been an open primary. And, I don't think that's very difficult that Democrats should just be straight up that he should not have run, now that we have all the facts. There should have been an open primary. I think to move on and move forward, it's important to take accountability and be straightforward with the American people," Khanna said.
O'Rourke said America's future could be in the balance "in part because of the decision that Biden, and those around him, made to run for re-election instead of having an open primary where the greatest talent that the Democratic Party can muster could be on that stage to have a competition of ideas, and track-record and vision and really excite, not just Democrats, but the people of this country who did want change. I mean, if anything was clear coming out of 2024, they wanted change."
Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan defended his former boss this week, while acknowledging that Biden's disastrous debate performance was shocking. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Another young Democrat and Biden's former National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, continued to defend his former boss at Politico's Security Summit on Thursday, dismissing an allegation that Biden had forgotten his name, and defending his leadership as commander-in-chief.
"What happened in that debate was a shock to me," Sullivan admitted. "I think it was a shock to everybody."
A Biden spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Deirdre Heavey is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
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