Mass. Gov. Maura Healey: Biden ‘Wasn’t the Strongest Communicator-in-Chief’ and He Cost Dems the Election

Garcia-NAVARRO: “Do you blame part of the failure to defend the Democratic brand, to articulate the vision, on the Biden Administration? Because you were the first Democratic governor to publicly urge President Biden to exit the race in July of last year. I mean, how much do you think it hurt the party, in voters’ eyes, that it seemed like Democrats were sort of hiding President Biden’s failing acuity?”
HEALEY: “I mean, I think that President Biden, the Biden Administration did so much for this country and pulled us through a pandemic, pulled us out of a really dark economic time, got us on really solid footing, did some incredible things. I think the party and was hampered by having President Biden as the communicator-in-chief, if I’m being honest. Okay? He wasn’t the strongest communicator-in-chief and that hurt us, because they weren’t able to sell all of the important accomplishments, that were, actually, in fact happening, effectively or as effectively, and that definitely hurt.”
Garcia-NAVARRO: “Do you think the party is adequately reckoning now with the effects of what happened, though? Because I just saw one of Biden’s senior advisers, Mike Donilon, say that the Democratic Party ‘lost its mind’ after Biden’s poor debate and basically threw an incumbent under the bus and that cost them the election.”
HEALEY: “I don’t — I hadn’t seen that comment. Are we grappling with what happened and having to deal with it right now? You better believe it. We’ve got Donald Trump in the White House. But I’ve talked before about this, you know, and my views about President Biden, and, you know, I think it was very hard for Kamala Harris, who I thought ran a fantastic campaign, to be able to overcome the disadvantage at the time and within the time that she was allotted. And I think it would have been a different story if the president had decided a few years ago that he was going to do what he said he would do, which is to serve one term, and then we’d have the opportunity for full engagement in a primary and the like that didn’t happen. I have no interest in further, you know, spending time on it, revisiting history. I’m focused on the now.”