Ex-Biden, Clinton staffer calls on Democrats to take a hard look at 'catastrophic' mistakes of 2024 campaign

Former Democratic staffer Jamie Metzl has joined the slew of Democrats calling on the party to take a hard look in the mirror to understand where they lost their way with the American working class after a resounding defeat in the 2024 election.

"When we saw Joe Biden in the debate on June 27th, it should have been clear to everybody that this was not a person who could have been President of United States for four more years, and people on the inside saw his decline. We should have had a competitive primary, and if we had had a competitive primary, something would have shaken out. We would have potentially had a candidate who could say, 'Hey, I'm not fully aligned with this past administration.' That was number one," he told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade Monday on "Fox & Friends."

He continued, "Number two is the Democrats didn't disconnect ourselves from these lunatics on the far left. Americans are really sensible, centrist people. Nobody wants to defund the police. Nobody's on board with globalizing the intifada. Nobody sees people on campuses with Hamas headbands burning American flags and say, 'Hey, that's us'… by trying to bring everybody into this same tent, I think we got skunks in the tent, and I think the Democrats really need to look at ourselves."

Metzl served as Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when then-Sen. Biden was chairman and served on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. 

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Metzl lamented that voters didn't know what the Democratic Party stood for after offering Vice President Kamala Harris, a seemingly progressive-turned-centrist frontrunner, and Gov. Tim Walz, a centrist-turned-progressive running mate. 

He argued that Democrats must be "more clear" in their messaging to earn the trust of the American people.

The key to making it happen? Party officials like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, he suggested, pointing to their perceived ability to bring people together in such a divided age and in states that have no clear political alignment.

"When I listened to President Trump on Joe Rogan, I didn't agree with everything President Trump was saying by a lot. But I think people listened and said ‘Hey, this guy is being sincere.’ When we heard the interviews with Kamala Harris, we didn't know whether she meant the things she was saying," he added.

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Metzl also appeared on "The Brian Kilmeade Show," where he touched on Biden's delayed decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, and what that decision likely meant for his party.

"I appreciate many of the things he did as president, but he made a catastrophic error one year ago by not just saying, ‘I’ve played my role. It's time to step aside. I won't seek the re-election. Let's have an open primary, and let somebody else emerge.' And we all saw on June 27th, in the debate, that he was not in any kind of condition to serve four more years, and I really think that hampered us," he said.

"Everybody recognized that this was going to be a change election, and we had the former president and the current vice president, and that's a tough pick for a change election. The Democrats had the opportunity to have a change candidate. If we'd had some kind of an open primary, even after the debate, in a short version, we could've had a competition of ideas, which is what democracy is about…"

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders captured headlines and drew ire from party members with an X post last week, calling on Democrats to reflect on why the working class had abandoned them.

He suggested the fault stemmed from Democrats first abandoning the working class Whites, Blacks and Hispanics, and they responded accordingly. 

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., among others, took exception to the comments, firing back by saying she doesn't "respect" the claim.