“Democrats testing the water may not have been forced to answer Biden health questions in the past, but they certainly will now,” said a national Democrat involved with major fundraising efforts, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

During the 2024 campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris publicly supported Biden. In an interview with ABC News in January 2024, Harris described Biden as “extraordinarily smart,” highlighting his ability to anticipate challenges and his extensive experience in leadership roles.

In response to special counsel Robert Hur’s report in February 2024 that described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Harris called the characterization “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate,” defending Biden’s capabilities.

Even after Biden’s difficult debate performance in June 2024, Harris acknowledged that it was “not his finest hour” but emphasized during remarks to a small group of donors in San Francisco that the outcome of the election should not be decided by a single moment.

Following Biden’s withdrawal from the race and subsequent endorsement of Harris, she continued to face questions about his day-to-day performance. Her campaign spokesperson reaffirmed her complete confidence in Biden’s stamina and mental clarity to manage both domestic and international challenges in October 2024.

According to new reporting in Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, a pivotal moment unfolded during a 9/11 commemoration in Pennsylvania when Biden briefly wore a “Trump 2024” hat after engaging with pro-Trump attendees. This incident raised serious doubts about Biden’s judgment for Harris, leading her campaign to distance itself from joint public appearances with the president.

Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist based in New York, said he believes that 2028 hopefuls who served in the Biden administration believe they lacked the usual access to the president due to an unusual, deliberate effort to keep him separated from his Cabinet.

“There’s certainly credibility to them saying, ‘We didn’t know, we didn’t have the access to him,’ that, in normal times, a Cabinet would have to its chief executive,” Reinish said. “It does seem that there was a concerted effort to keep them separated.”

At a nearly 90-minute veterans event in Iowa last week, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned his former boss just once.

Speaking to reporters in Cedar Rapids, Buttigieg said that whenever he needed support from Biden, “I got it.” He noted that their closest collaboration came in the aftermath of last year’s catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

“I will tell you the same president the world saw addressing that was the president I was in the Oval [Office] with, insisting that we do good and do right by Baltimore, and that is characteristic of my experience with him,” Buttigieg said.

When asked if the Democratic Party might have been better off had Biden chosen not to run for a second term, Buttigieg responded, “Maybe.”

“Right now, with the benefit of hindsight, most people would agree that is the case,” he said. “We also are not in a position to wallow in hindsight. We have to get ready for some fundamental tests for the future of this country and this party.”

The comments mark a shift from the 2024 presidential campaign, when Buttigieg was a loyal advocate for the president, regularly defending his leadership and capacity to serve.

The anonymous national Democrat with experience running presidential campaigns believes it would be best to “start from scratch.”

“There was a lot of gaslighting that went on during the 2024 cycle, and anyone who was potentially complicit in that is not going to be viewed kindly,” the person said. “It could definitely be a drag on certain candidates who were connected to the administration,” such as Harris and Buttigieg.

Reinish argued that in a crowded 2028 field, candidates with less baggage will have an advantage, especially those who can avoid being dragged into questions about what they knew and when regarding Biden’s condition.

“It’s going to be a very crowded field, and I think that the less baggage you have, the better off these candidates will be,” he said. “That’s not a way to start a conversation for 2028 with the American people. So that is going to be something that they’re all going to have to navigate.”

Several possible 2028 candidates have begun openly questioning Biden’s fitness for office, despite the risk of being labeled hypocrites for previously supporting him. This week alone, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) acknowledged Biden’s mental decline. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) argued that Biden never should have sought a second term. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), once a vice presidential prospect for Harris, recently put distance between himself and Biden, maintaining he privately raised concerns with the former president at the moment.

“I can tell you that I was very frank with the president during his campaign about what I saw were some of the shortcomings,” Shapiro said in an interview with Politico. “I was very honest with him in a private setting about that.”

However, a Democratic strategist with presidential campaign experience dismissed concerns that candidates closely associated with Biden would be harmed by revelations about his health.

BIDEN’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS FUELS FRESH DOUBTS AND DISTRUST AMONG DEMOCRATS

“If you’re going to win an election in 2028, voters have to think three things: One, you have a plan for the future, two, you are authentic, and three, they believe what you say, and if you can click those three boxes, that is what you have to do,” the strategist said.

“Whether they are forced to talk about Joe Biden or talk about something else — if they do it in a way that hits all three of those things, they’ll be in a good spot. The election is too far out to really say, because in three years, who knows what the world will be like?”