2020 candidate Beto O'Rourke acknowledged on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday former Vice President Joe Biden was "a return to the past," emphasizing "that cannot be who we are going forward."
"He is [a return to the past]. And that cannot be who we are going forward. We've got to be bigger. ... You've got to ask yourself where Joe Biden is on the issues that are most important to you. Did he support the war in Iraq that forever destabilized the Middle East? Does he really believe that women of lower incomes should be able to make their own decisions about their own body, to be able to afford health care in order to do that? He supported the Hyde Amendment; he now opposes the Hyde Amendment."
"... I'm not exactly sure what he believes or what he should apologize for. I only know that this country should be able to do far better."
The big picture: Campaign aides told Axios' Alexi McCammond last month that there wasn't a real incentive to attack one another just yet, and that it would be especially unwise if they tried to go after Biden. That has changed for some candidates, including for O'Rourke — who has found himself dropping as low 2% in 2020 polls months after drawing significant media attention at his campaign launch in March.