The co-hosts of the prominent progressive podcast "Pod Save America" appeared on "The View" on Friday to explain the Democratic Party's failures during the 2024 campaign.
The three co-hosts and former Obama administration staffers, Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer, pointed to the party's coddling of President Biden and his ambitions to run for re-election despite his age and poor polling, as one of the reasons for Democrats being in such disarray.
"I think one thing, though, that harmed the Democrats over the last couple of years was a lack of candor and not being honest with ourselves that there were a lot of voters who felt like Joe Biden was too old to get another four years," Vietor told the ABC daytime talk show hosts.
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Since President Donald Trump's election victory in November, there have been reports of infighting in the party, especially over how it went about replacing former President Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Prominent figures, like House Speaker emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have slammed Biden's team for him not dropping out of his re-election race early enough. She told the New York Times podcast, "The Interview," in November, "Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race."
Others in the party have slammed influential figures - like former President Obama and his allies - for encouraging Biden to drop out of the race and not having a good playbook for replacing him on the 2024 ticket.
"The View" co-hosts mentioned the divisions in the party, prompting the ex-Obama aides to say they stem from Democrats not being honest about how Biden was unlikely to beat Trump until it was too late.
Vietor replied, stating ahead of Biden's exit, American voters "were rejecting his candidacy, and you could see it in polling and you could see it in primaries." Slamming the party, he added, "And Democrats said, 'You know what? It's fine. Everything will be okay. Trump is bad and therefore that will offset that.'"
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Vietor added that the party needs to return to being honest and pro-working class to become strong again. "We got to get our act together," he added.
Co-host Joy Behar then asked, "Do any of you agree with Joe Biden that he would've won?"
"He would not have won," Favreau stated. "His own polling showed… that Donald Trump was going to win 400 electoral votes - 400 plus."
He continued, "This I maybe don't blame Joe Biden for - his people, the people closest to him - refused to show him the polling, the real polling."
Sources close to the former president told The Washington Post in December that Biden believes he would have beaten Trump.
Pfeiffer chimed in, stating, "If Joe Biden wants to spend the rest of his days believing he would have won, that's a gift we can all give him."
