On Sunday morning, before news of former President Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis broke, the talk of the weekend was about the Robert Hur tapes that had been released. Many Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media are trying to pretend they didn't cover up for the president and are singing quite the tune about their thoughts on whether he should have held on for so long for the 2024 election, before he was ultimately replaced by then Vice President Kamala Harris.
During the most recent episode of NBC News' "Meet the Press," host Kristen Welker asked Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) about the release of those Hur tapes, and if his confusion about what year his son, Beau, died, was "proof that President Biden shouldn't have run for reelection?"
Although Murphy did eventually throw Biden and Harris under the bus, he began by trying to defend the president. "Well, I--I don't know that that's a particular fair excerpt. That's a very emotional topic for the president," the senator claimed. "But obviously, in retrospect, the president should have gotten out of the race earlier. There's no doubt that the Democratic Party would have been better served by having the ability to have an open primary. Kamala Harris probably would have done very well in that process," he went on to say.
While it may be something that one could say is "obviously" the case, there's no "in retrospect" needed. That's all on Democrats and their media allies saying so. Then White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre not only claimed that video evidence of Biden's decline amounted to "cheap fakes," but congressional Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration dragged their feet on releasing the Hur tapes. Then Attorney General Merrick Garland was even held in contempt of Congress over refusing to hand over the audio interviews, which he threw a tantrum over, though nothing came of it.
It's questionable as to if Harris "would have done very well" in a primary, especially since she never won a single primary vote for her 2020 presidential run, as she dropped out in December 2019, before the Iowa Caucus even took place. It's also worth mentioning there were concerns that other top Democrats had about Harris being the nominee.
Murphy still had more to say. "But in retrospect, we lost. And so you can defend the way in which our politics played out," he offered, adding that "in retrospect" again. Polls showed now President Donald Trump beating Biden, and a very close race between Trump and Harris. Not only did Harris lose the Electoral College, but the popular vote as well, becoming the first Democrat to do so in 20 years. Republicans also held onto control of the House and won back control of the Senate.
"I mean, listen, what I--I've said is that, you know, like anybody who reaches that stage in their life, you know, there is some level of diminishment," Murphy said, defending Biden some more. "But I got to work with the president pretty closely in 2022, in 2023. And I saw a president who was passing legislation and helping the American people at a pretty unprecedented rate. That being said, by 2024, the American people had decided that they wanted somebody new. They wanted somebody younger. And it was a mistake. It was a mistake for Democrats to not listen to the voters earlier and set up a process that would have gotten us in a position when we could've been more competitive that fall," he added.
While Murphy may be coming around in some ways, he also claimed that Biden was "helping the American people at a pretty unprecedented rate." The examples of cognitive decline were noticeable even then, and regardless, his poll numbers had been at low points for that part of his presidency as well.
🚨DEMS IN DISARRAY: Chris Murphy throws Biden AND Kamala under the bus:
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 18, 2025
“In retrospect, the president should have gotten out of the race earlier. The Democratic Party would have been better served by having the ability to have an open primary."
"Kamala Harris probably would… pic.twitter.com/p6IJk4WDJY
Welker went on to mention the decline seen in 2023, as she was quoting an upcoming book from CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again."
As Welker point out, the book "goes even further and actually details what they call a cover-up from the White House, from top aides around the president." She went on to mention an excerpt from the book, "One senior White House aide, who left because they didn't think Biden should run again, confessed to us that 'we attempted to shield him from his own staff so many people didn't realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023.'"
"Do you think some top officials in the Biden White House covered up the state of his mental health at the time?" Welker asked.
Although Murphy began by saying he hasn't read the book, adding, "and so I don't know what to say about the allegations they make," he still went on to praise the president . "But I know that I worked with him throughout 2022 on the gun bill, which has saved, by the way, thousands of lives. He was intimately involved in those negotiations. I was in the White House in the fall of 2023 doing an hour-and-a-half long meeting on some really complicated developments in the Middle East. And I saw a president who was in control," he claimed, which is what his "experience" was. "But I admit that by 2024, the American public had made up their minds, right, that they wanted the Democratic Party to nominate somebody new. And it was absolutely a mistake for the party to not listen to those voters," Murphy added.
When he was asked by Welker as to if he personally "bear[s] some responsibility as well," Murphy tried to put that on how "I think we all bear responsibility," before he still defended Biden. "Listen, and I think, you know, we maybe didn't listen as early as we should have in part because we have immense loyalty to this man who had led this country out of a pandemic, who had been maybe the most prodigious legislator as a president--the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Act, the bipartisan gun bill--in a generation," he said. "But ultimately, in retrospect, you can't defend what the Democratic Party did because we are stuck with a madman, with a corrupt president in the Oval Office. And we should have given ourselves a better chance to win," after he had just defended Biden and the party.
Murphy had also mentioned the woefully misnamed Inflation Reduction Act at the start of the interview as well, as he claimed that "I think it's important to remember that some of the most important legislative achievements during Joe Biden's presidency were done in a way that reduced the deficit." Biden himself later admitted such a bill was more so about climate alarmism and came with a $369 billion bill. Murphy had been asked by Welker why it was that Democrats didn't do more to address the national debt when in power.
Editor's Note: Every single day, here at Townhall, we will stand up and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT against the radical left and deliver the conservative reporting our readers deserve.
Help us continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration and its major wins. Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member