Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) conceded Democrats would have been “served better” if party elders had held a primary election to nominate former President Joe Biden’s replacement after he dropped his bid for reelection last year.
Biden immediately endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement after suspending his presidential campaign last summer, a move largely viewed as undercutting a primary process where another candidate could have been picked to challenge President Donald Trump.
Klobuchar on Sunday became the latest Democrat to express regret over the move. Her remarks on the matter follow Harris’s bruising loss in the 2024 election to Trump, after which some critics argued Democrats might have won the White House if the party had chosen to hold a primary after Biden’s exit.
“You know, everything we look at in a rearview mirror after you lose an election. Yes, we would have been served better by a primary. But we are where we are. We’re not on the History Channel right now,” Klobuchar said on NBC News’s Meet the Press.
Her statement contradicts Biden’s latest comments on the matter during a BBC interview last week.
Biden defended the timing and manner of his exit during the appearance, arguing that his move to back Harris was the right choice.
“I think it was the right decision,” Biden said. “It was just a difficult decision.”
During another interview last week on ABC’s The View, Biden blamed Harris’s loss on sexism.
“They went the sexist route,” Biden said in response to criticism that “a woman couldn’t lead the country and a woman of mixed race.”
Klobuchar, however, pushed back on that argument on Sunday.
“I hope not,” the Minnesota senator told NBC host Kristen Welker when asked whether the 2024 election means Democrats shouldn’t nominate a woman for president.
She pointed to past elections where women have fared well.
BIDEN ADMITS THAT ENDING 2024 CAMPAIGN WAS THE ‘RIGHT DECISION’ IN BBC INTERVIEW
“And you’ve also seen women in the U.S., incredible mayors, incredible governors. I look in the Senate — for Democrats in the last election, three of the four races where we beat the presidential ticket were women running. In Michigan, women running, in Nevada, women running, in Wisconsin.”
“I know it’s not easy running as a woman,” Klobuchar added. “If it was, we could play the game ‘Pick your favorite woman president.’”
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
