He stayed silent.
Former Obama staffer and “Pod Save America” co-host Jon Lovett recently acknowledged on Jon Stewart’s The Weekly Show podcast that he chose not to publicly address concerns about President Joe Biden’s health during the 2024 election campaign.
Speaking with Stewart and fellow host Jon Favreau, Lovett admitted he had reservations about Biden’s physical and cognitive sharpness but held back because his priority was seeing Biden win reelection.
“I felt it was a major issue worth discussing — something Biden could overcome,” Lovett explained. “But I wasn’t willing to go so far as to say he should step down because of his age. I didn’t know all the facts behind the scenes, and at the end of the day, if he was the nominee, I wanted him to win.”
Lovett said his hesitation was also strategic — he feared that any critique coming from the left could be seized upon by conservatives and used as political ammunition against Biden.
“It wasn’t just about being honest regarding his age,” he said. “It was also about making sure that criticism from within our side didn’t end up fueling the opposition’s narrative.”
This conversation comes amid increased media scrutiny of Biden’s fitness for office, particularly following reporting by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson. Both journalists are promoting their book Original Sin, which explores Biden’s health challenges and alleges efforts by his team to conceal them.
Lovett is mentioned in the book in an episode recounting an April 26, 2024 meeting at the White House with Biden, alongside co-hosts Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer. According to Original Sin, the trio left the meeting “deeply disturbed,” with the president reportedly appearing unfocused and “incoherent.”
