Although Joe Biden initially indicated that he intended his presidency to be a transition of sorts, fueling speculation that he would decline to run for a second term, he ultimately threw his hat in the ring only to be forced out by his own party.
Looking back on his compelled decision to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris, Biden recently told one reporter that he believes he would have been able to emerge victorious if he’d only stayed in the race.
According to The Hill :
“It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,” the president said when reporter Susan Page asked if he could have won.
Biden added that he based that view on polling he reviewed but didn’t elaborate on where the data came from. When the president dropped out of the 2024 race in late July, he was behind Trump in national and battleground polls and Vice President Harris was able to perform better against the president-elect just after taking over the ticket.
Biden withdrew his reelection bid amid pressure from Democrats to do so, following a dismal debate performance against Trump that raised questions over his age and fitness.
The president said in the interview that he wasn’t sure he would have the stamina to serve for another four years, telling Page, “I don’t know,” when she asked about if he had the vigor.
“So far, so good… but who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?” Biden said in the interview.
The statement was seen by many as another sign of a rift between the Biden and Harris camps:
USA Today provided full coverage of the interview, including how Biden hopes future Americans will remember his widely panned term in office:
As he prepares to leave the White House after four years ‒ and end a political career that spanned five decades ‒ Biden said he hopes to leave a presidential legacy defined by two fronts.
“I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan how to restore the economy and reestablish America’s leadership in the world,” said Biden, who came into office in January 2021 during a historic pandemic and amid straining relations with traditional U.S. allies. “That was my hope.”
“And I hope it records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind,” he said.
On the foreign policy front, Biden touted his record “reestablishing our alliances.” And he called for continued U.S. leadership on the global stage as many hardline Republicans close to Trump embrace isolationism from international conflicts.
“I think America is desperately needed to lead the world,” Biden said. “Let me put it in this context. Who leads the world if we don’t? Not a joke. Who leads and tries to put together the kinds of coalitions and policies that are international in scope? I mean, it’s all cliché. The world’s really getting small, man.”
Reports surfaced prior to Biden’s latest interview that he had been saying in private that he would’ve had a better shot of beating Trump than Harris did, as discussed in this segment of a recent episode of Fox News Channel’s “The Five.”
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.
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