Joe Biden stops by The View to say he could have beaten Trump

“I wasn’t surprised, not because I didn’t think the vice president wasn’t qualified to be president. She is, she’s qualified to be President of the United States of America,” Biden said on the show. However, their opponents went “the sexist route,” saying, “I’ve never seen quite as successful and consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman could lead the country, and a woman of mixed race.” (The fact that Harris only had a few months to start a campaign more or less from scratch likely didn’t help either, but Biden responded to those criticisms by talking instead about how helpful Harris was to his administration.) He also suggested that the COVID pandemic led to global backlash against liberal democracy: “I was very disappointed, but I wasn’t surprised.” He then went on to say that he believes he could have beaten Trump had he not dropped out of the race, citing the decreased voter turnout in the 2024 election compared to the 2020 election. 

During the conversation, Biden did “take responsibility” for the ways in which he may have contributed to Trump’s reelection, saying, “I was in charge and he won.” He took some time to highlight his achievements in office, and suggested that he and the Democrats didn’t do a good enough job of advertising their wins. Almost refreshing to hear an understatement these days, huh?