Joe Biden’s term is about to come to an end. He’s finally airing out what he thinks he should’ve done differently.
And President Biden issues one regret about his presidency that has Trump laughing out of his chair.
President Joe Biden has expressed private regrets about stepping away from this year’s presidential race, reportedly insisting he could have defeated President-elect Donald Trump if he hadn’t been pressured out by his own party.
According to a Saturday report from The Washington Post, Biden and several aides have recently confided to close allies that the president believes he should have remained in the race and secured a second term. The claims, attributed to multiple anonymous sources briefed on the discussions, paint a picture of a president frustrated by the circumstances surrounding his withdrawal.
The 82-year-old president ultimately bowed to pressure from Democratic Party leaders in July following low poll numbers and a challenging June 27 debate performance, where he stumbled over his words and delivered incoherent answers.
His decision to leave the race paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to take the top spot on the Democratic ticket. However, Harris suffered a decisive loss to Trump, who is now preparing to return to the White House on January 20 for a second term.
“Aides say the president has been careful not to place blame on Harris or her campaign,” The Washington Post reported.
Still, Biden has indirectly acknowledged the role of Democratic leadership in his decision. In an August interview on CBS News Sunday Morning, he suggested that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led the charge to convince him to step aside, citing concerns among House and Senate Democrats about his potential impact on their reelection prospects.
By September, Biden expressed confidence on The View that he could have defeated Trump if he had remained in the race.
Meanwhile, some members of the party believe his hesitation to drop out earlier hurt Harris’ chances in the general election.
“Biden ran on the promise that he was going to be a transitional president, and in effect, have one term before handing it off to another generation,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said to The Washington Post. “I think his running again broke that concept — the conceptual underpinning of the theory that he would end the Trump appeal; he would defeat Trumpism and enable a new era.”
Among Biden’s advisers, there’s an acknowledgment that his leadership style, rooted in decades of experience, didn’t always align with the rapid pace of modern political cycles.
“The president has been operating on a time horizon measured in decades, while the political cycle is measured in four years,” said Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, to The Washington Post.
In recent weeks, Biden has also reflected on several missteps during his presidency. He admitted that his performance in the June debate was a major error, calling it a moment where he “screwed up.”
Additionally, he acknowledged it was “stupid” not to include his name on the pandemic relief checks distributed in 2021, missing an opportunity to gain political credit as Trump had in 2020.
Biden has also been candid about other frustrations, including his choice of Merrick Garland as attorney general. According to The Washington Post, citing claims from Bob Woodward’s book War, Biden has told confidantes he regrets selecting Garland, describing the former appeals court judge as overly aggressive in pursuing charges against his son Hunter Biden.
At the same time, Biden felt Garland was too slow to act against Trump over the January 6 riots — charges that were ultimately dismissed.
In hindsight, Biden and his team acknowledge that the administration could have done more to uplift Americans’ spirits during the pandemic.
Despite these reflections, Biden reportedly remains convinced that he could have secured a victory over Trump if given the chance to see the race through. But based off polling and Joe Biden’s approval ratings, it was likely that Donald Trump would’ve wiped the floor with him just like he did with Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
