Joe Biden regrets having pulled out of this year’s presidential race and believes he would have defeated Donald Trump in last month’s election – despite negative poll indications, White House sources have said.
The US president has reportedly also said he made a mistake in choosing Merrick Garland as attorney general – reflecting that Garland, a former US appeals court judge, was slow to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January 2021 insurrection while presiding over a justice department that aggressively prosecuted Biden’s son Hunter.
With just more than three weeks of his single-term presidency remaining, Biden’s reported rueful reflections are revealed in a Washington Post profile that contains the clearest signs yet that he thinks he erred in withdrawing his candidacy in July after a woeful debate performance against his rival for the White House, Trump, the previous month.
The campaign is bigger than one person, as is the party structure though - Pelosi had to be the one to kick out the pillars beneath Biden in order for him to end his run. Nobody in the DNC or the Biden campaign took the keys away from Grandpa until then. Even as an DC outsider who just follows politics, let alone has daily access to Biden, it was apparent that he was mentally declining, and rapidly so in the last two years.
Even before then, it was business as usual. “It’s my turn” got us Trump in 2016 after Hillary stood aside for Obama. “It’s my turn, again” got us Trump in 2024 because Biden/the staff did not court a fresh crop of junior politicians, nor stand aside gracefully in the Primary, nor even permit Harris the conditions to win. She publicly was saddled with no-win scenarios like the border or Gaza, whilst being relied upon to pass legislation in the Senate, becoming the record holder in that role.
And that’s before we even get to how Trump’s court shenanigans were permitted to play out and run down the clock. Biden needs to save his whitewashing of history and self-exoneration for his Presidential Library, his record is clear. Had he actually been a one termed ‘elder statesman’ who passed the torch and prepared the next generation, we wouldn’t be looking at a Republican triple sweep of government.