President Biden insisted in an interview revealed Wednesday that he may have crushed President-elect Trump within the 2024 election.
In a sit down with USA Right now, Biden claimed that polls steered he may have gained a second time period if he had not dropped out of the race amid issues about his age following a shaky summer season debate with Trump.
“It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, based on the polling,” Biden advised journalist Susan Web page in an Oval Workplace interview carried out final weekend.
Biden admitted he couldn’t ensure he would have had been match to serve successfully for one more 4 years if he had gained reelection.
“I don’t know. Who the hell knows? So far, so good,” Biden mentioned. “But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”
Biden ended his marketing campaign in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take the Democratic baton. His historic transfer got here amid a rising refrain from allies and critics alike demanding for him to step down following the shaky debate that put a renewed concentrate on his age and health to serve.
Public polls on the time confirmed Biden badly trailing Trump. Harris loved a bounce in public assist after she launched her marketing campaign however finally misplaced each the electoral school and common vote to Trump.
Some Democrats consider Biden ought to have put the kibosh on a run for a second time period a lot earlier in his presidency, maybe after the 2022 midterm elections, to clear the best way for a contested presidential major battle.
However the president insisted that he acted in the most effective pursuits of the celebration, beginning together with his determination to return out of retirement to efficiently oust Trump from the White Home in 2020.
“When Trump was running … for reelection, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him,” the president mentioned. “But I also wasn’t looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old. And so I did talk about passing the baton.”
Biden additionally claimed that Trump praised his file behind closed doorways in the course of the two rivals’ cordial White Home assembly in November, a really stark distinction to the derisive assaults the president-elect has launched in public.
“He was very complimentary about some of the economic things I had done,” Biden mentioned. “And he talked about … he thought I was leaving with a good record.”
Initially Printed: January 8, 2025 at 11:50 AM EST
