Joe Biden has reportedly shared “in recent days” that he could’ve defeated Donald Trump despite concerns over the president’s age, his mental acuity and cratering support with Democrats that caused him to drop out of the 2024 race.
Biden, along with some aides, believe he shouldn’t have stepped aside in July, a decision that paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential bid, The Washington Post reported on Saturday citing sources close to the White House.
The news comes in the face of Biden’s deep unpopularity among Americans as the president hit his lowest approval rating since moving into the White House in 2021, according to a survey taken by the Marquette Law School Poll earlier this month.
His approval rating currently sits at 37.4%, a number that’s 5% lower than what Trump had at the same point of his first term, according to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight.
The Biden campaign reportedly had a grim election picture against Trump as internal polling showed the now-president-elect taking home 400 electoral votes in November, according to Pod Save America host Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama.
Following the president’s disastrous debate performance against Trump in June, the Biden camp was privately “shivving” Harris to reporters and claiming that the vice president couldn’t win as he was the “strongest” candidate, Favreau said in a post-election podcast episode last month.
Biden aides said the president “has been careful not to place blame on Harris or her campaign” over the loss, according to the Post.
Harris — who initially appeared to outpace Trump in the fundraising department and polled slightly better than Biden in the days after launching her 2024 bid — would go on to lose every swing state and the popular vote to her opponent, who secured 312 electoral votes compared to her 226 electoral votes.
Democrats have since blamed Harris’ loss on a number of factors, including Biden’s insistence to remain in the race and the vice president’s inability to distance herself from the unpopular president.
Prior to his decision to drop out, he lost key support within the party, including from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California), who is credited with helping pressure him to call off his reelection bid.
Pelosi would later reveal that she thinks some of his allies “haven’t forgiven” her for her role in the decision.
The former House speaker, in a post-election interview with The New York Times, suggested that an earlier exit from Biden followed by an “open primary” for his replacement could’ve benefited Democrats.
Biden has previously acknowledged that he “screwed up” in the June debate, one that saw him fumbling responses, and struggling to counter Trump’s storm of lies and falsehoods.
The Post noted that Biden “does not regret participating” in the debate, just how he performed in it.
Read more of The Washington Post’s report here.
