President Biden still regrets withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race last summer after mounting pressure from Democrats to step down, according to a report.
The president recently told people that he still believes he could have beaten Trump in the November election, despite his difficult June debate performance and low approval ratings that forced him out of the race, according to The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the matter. Conversations.
In the wake of the June 27 debate, more and more Democrats began calling for him to withdraw every day, so that someone else could run in his place.
The president also saw much of his funding dry up last summer as donors began to doubt his chances of beating Trump.
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President Biden speaks at the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of the Interior, December 9, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Biden left the race on July 21, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, who had just over three months to campaign before the election.
Trump defeated Harris by 2.2 million votes.
The newspaper reported that Biden was careful not to blame Harris while insisting to his aides that he could have won.
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President-elect Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by 2.2 million votes. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Even as he withdrew, Biden still believed he could beat Trump — whom he defeated in his first term in 2020, according to the New York Times in September.
Rep. James Clyburn, DSC, would disagree.
Clyburn, who met with Biden earlier this year, told the newspaper that he told the president, “Your style doesn’t fit well with the environment we’re in right now,” while talking about style versus substance.
“How to govern at this moment to set the United States up for long-term success has one answer, and how to govern to handle the midterm and presidential elections in the very short term may have one answer,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told the newspaper. “The president has gone on to do things that have put America in a really strong position.”
Biden has been careful not to blame Harris while insisting to aides that he could have won. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Among admissions of other missteps — including his debate performance — Biden also said he regretted choosing Merrick Garland as attorney general, The Washington Post reported.
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Convinced by aides who said Garland would be a consensus pick, Biden privately said he felt Garland moved too slowly in Trump’s impeachment, while also claiming his son Hunter had been prosecuted too aggressively.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
