WASHINGTON — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg , who spent years defending ex-President Joe Biden from attacks over his mental acuity, declared Sunday that the 82-year-old shouldn’t have run for re-election.

Buttigieg, 43, who underscored that he was not involved with Biden’s decision-making process, appeared to back former Vice President Kamala Harris in rebuking their elderly boss’s decision to seek a second term.

“He should not have run,” Buttigieg told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And if he had made that decision sooner, we might have been better off. 4

“But it literally was his decision. Nobody else was able to make that decision,” Buttigieg said. “And now in front of us, we’re confronted with the decisions that come next. And that’s where we’ve got to focus.”

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