O’Rourke: Biden would be a return to the past

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), who is running for president, on Thursday said that former Vice President Joe Biden represents a “return to the past” for the party.

“We cannot return to the past. We cannot simply be about defeating Donald Trump,” O’Rourke said while calling for more progressive policy proposals during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

{mosads}”Is Joe Biden a return to the past?” co-host Willie Geist asked the former congressman.

“He is,” O’Rourke responded of his fellow White House hopeful. “And that cannot be who we are going forward. We’ve got to be bigger. We’ve got to be bolder. We have to set a much higher mark and be relentless in pursuing that.”

“We cannot return to the past. We cannot simply be about defeating Donald Trump,” Beto O’Rourke tells @Morning_Joe.@WillieGeist: “So, is Joe Biden a return to the past?”

O’Rourke: “He is.” pic.twitter.com/NHIrznMwUs

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 13, 2019

After the interview, “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough took to Twitter to tout O’Rourke’s candidacy.

“He has been doing well over the past month,” Scarborough wrote. “As I said a few weeks back, do not take your eyes off of his candidacy. He can still win.”

Talking to @BetoORourke on Morning Joe. He has been doing well over the past month. As I said a few weeks back, do not take your eyes off of his candidacy. He can still win.

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 13, 2019

O’Rourke rose to national prominence when he narrowly lost a race in reliably red Texas against Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in 2018.

The launch of his presidential campaign stirred interest, but he has struggled to gain traction in the polls.

Biden, however, has been consistently polling at the top of the crowded Democratic field of two dozen candidates vying for the opportunity to take on President Trump in 2020.

The former vice president led the pack with 24 percent of the vote in an Iowa poll conducted by veteran pollster Ann Selzer for The Des Moines Register and CNN this week.

In that poll, only 2 percent of Iowa Democrats say O’Rourke would be their first choice in the first-in-the-nation caucuses, a large drop from December, when he had 11 percent support. 

O’Rourke on Sunday brushed off the low spot in the poll.

“I don’t know that this many months out from the caucuses in Iowa these polls really indicate what our prospects are,” O’Rourke told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.”  

“If I relied on polls, in any race I’ve run, I never would have served in the U.S. Congress, never would have taken on Ted Cruz, never would have been able to lead the largest grass-roots effort in the state of Texas,” he added.