{"id":6862,"date":"2025-10-18T07:51:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T07:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/6862\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T07:51:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T07:51:06","slug":"pennsylvania-gov-josh-shapiro-recalls-giving-biden-brutal-reality-check-about-his-2024-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/6862\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recalls giving Biden brutal reality check about his 2024 campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recalled to \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d in a new interview how he tried to deliver then-President Joe Biden bad news about the election before Biden dropped out of the race.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nearly a year\u00a0after the 2024 election,<\/a>\u00a0which was seen as a reckoning for Democrats, the party is still trying to make sense of where they have gone wrong in recent years.<\/p>\n

Shapiro, who\u00a0presents himself as a moderate\u00a0for the party who goes out of his way to engage with conservatives, spoke candidly about his sober warnings to Biden<\/a> when Biden was still the de facto 2024 Democratic nominee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went directly to the president and spoke to him about what I saw were, you know, his challenges in Pennsylvania. I was really honest with him,\u201d\u00a0Shapiro said.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWe got together at a coffee shop in Harrisburg. I think this has been reported. I mean, I\u2019ll just share with you. He said, \u2018How\u2019s it going?\u2019 I was very clear: \u2018It\u2019s not going well.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He then recalled what he had told Biden at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Polls are showing it\u2019s not going well,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re handling the cost question. Back to what we talked about before with rising costs. It was a big theme in the campaign. Big issue in Pennsylvania. I didn\u2019t think they were handling that well. I expressed that I thought people thought he wasn\u2019t up to the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro appears on \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d on Oct. 17, 2025.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden speaks with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in a coffee shop in Harrisburg on July 7, 2024. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Shapiro argued that his personal style and approach shaped the way he handled this conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, maybe it\u2019s old school, but I believe that if you got something to say, you say it directly to that person\u2019s face, and he\u2019s the president of the United States. I respected him, still respect him, and I respect him enough to say it directly to his face,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked how this sobering assessment was received at the time, Shapiro replied, \u201cI think he heard it. He told me that their poll numbers were different, and he seemed committed to continuing forward. And, listen, that\u2019s his call.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also recalled arguing to Biden that part of his issue was that Biden\u2019s team wasn\u2019t straightforward with its own boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreakfast Club\u201d host Charlamagne tha God argued that such stories need to be told by any future Democratic Party contenders for the presidency, arguing that \u201canybody that wants to lead this party in the future has to throw that old regime under the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro, however, disagreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that you get ahead in life by throwing people under the bus,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe that I got to kick somebody in order to get ahead. I think you\u2019ve got to show your work. I think you\u2019ve got to show a vision. I think you\u2019ve got to tell people what you\u2019re all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recalled telling Biden that the \u201cpolls are showing it\u2019s not going well.\u201d AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Shapiro was vetted as a possible running mate for Kamala Harris,<\/a> but she ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.<\/a><\/p>\n

Shapiro was prescient about Democrats\u2019 issues in his state because Trump went on to win Pennsylvania and the presidency.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden\u2019s staff and did not receive an immediate response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recalled to \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d in a new interview how he tried to deliver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6148,1578,6149,33,28,30,29,50,302,6150],"class_list":{"0":"post-6862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-2024-presidential-election","9":"tag-joe-biden","10":"tag-joe-biden-drops-out-of-presidential-race-2024","11":"tag-josh-shapiro","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-us-news","17":"tag-us-presidents"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}