Murphy says 'no doubt' Biden suffered cognitive decline while in office

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said there’s “no doubt” that former President Joe Biden suffered cognitive decline in office and that it would have been better for the party if he hadn’t run for reelection.

“There’s no doubt about it,” said the Connecticut senator when asked by POLITICO if Biden experienced cognitive decline as president. “The debate is whether it was enough that it compromised his ability to act as chief executive.”

Murphy, who is widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, also said that it would have been helpful to Democrats if Biden had declined to mount a 2024 bid.

“I mean, isn’t that self-evident? We lost,” he quipped. “Obviously, in retrospect, we should have done something different. The likelihood is the odds were pretty stacked against us no matter what, but clearly people were looking for change and neither Biden nor Harris were going to be able to offer a real message of change.”

Few elected Democrats have so far been as direct about attacking Biden’s cognitive abilities publicly. Former Transportation SecretaryPete Buttigieg said on Tuesday that “maybe” Democrats would have been better off had the former president not run for reelection, while Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said if he wasn’t going to run he needed to drop out before the Democratic primary because the amount of time former Vice President Kamala Harris was left with was insufficient for her to “introduce herself” to the public.

Democrats have been confronted with questions about Biden’s age as the former president has reemerged on the national stage, sitting down for an interview with “The View” last week and with a pair of high-profile journalists slated to release a book about what the authors describe as the former president’s deterioration while in office.

After Biden’s disastrous debate performance last year, Murphy defended him as “one of the most effective presidents that I have ever served under,” but said his performance “raised questions” and that he had to quickly do more on the campaign trail to address concerns. That February, prior to the debate, Murphy said that “I know that he is ready for this campaign” and pushed back against those who argued otherwise.