(The Hill) — Former President Biden expressed on Friday that he does not regret his decision to pursue reelection in 2024, suggesting that other Democrats refrained from challenging him in the party’s primary because they anticipated defeat.
Asked about concerns from Democrats over whether he should have stepped aside earlier, the former president brushed off the criticism.
“Why didn’t they run against me then?” Biden told reporters on Friday in New Castle, Del. “Because I would’ve beaten them.”
In late April 2023, Biden declared his intention to seek another term, although his campaign faced scrutiny due to his age and doubts regarding his capability to fulfill presidential responsibilities for another four years.
On July 21, 2024, Biden exited the race, just a few weeks after a problematic debate with the GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Concerns regarding Biden’s age and cognitive sharpness were heightened by his struggles to respond to questions or remain focused during the event.
Former Vice President Harris became the party’s nominee and eventually ended up losing to Trump in November.
Concerns around Biden’s mental fitness reemerged earlier this month after Axios leaked audio from his interview with special counsel Robert Hur. The discussion — centered around classified documents found at the former president’s private residence from his time as vice president — shone a light on Biden’s memory lapses.
The Trump administration later released the full audio. Hur in his probe found that while Biden “willfully” retained the documents, a jury would likely just see him as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and no charges were filed.
His use of an auto pen during his final weeks in office and a recent prostate cancer diagnosis have also exacerbated claims of his alleged mental decline.
On Friday, Biden also slammed the authors of a new book that outlines that decline during his 2024 reelection campaign. “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, showed to what extent the top White House aides were unaware of his condition.
“You can see that I’m mentally incompetent, I can’t walk — and I can beat the hell out of both of them,” Biden told reporters on Friday.
He has also suggested in previous interviews that even if he had withdrawn from the race earlier, “I don’t think it would have mattered.”
