Former President Joe Biden revealed on Thursday he still believed he could have beaten President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
The former president went on “The View” where he was asked by co-host Alyssa Farah about whether he believed he could have won, where Harris failed.
‘Yeah, he still got seven million fewer votes, ok? A lot of people didn’t show up,’ he said.
Biden said the swing states were still ‘very close’ and that Trump’s victories in those states were not a ‘slam dunk.’
He said he was not surprised that Harris lost, even though he stressed he believed she was fully qualified to be president.
‘I wasn’t surprised by the sexist undertones in their campaign. They successfully challenged the stereotype that a woman, especially a woman of mixed race, couldn’t lead the country.’
He defied the argument made by Democratic critics that Biden waited too long to exit the race and endorse Harris.
‘There were six full months,’ he shot back, arguing his presidency was ‘successful’ despite their struggles in the polls.
Former President Joe Biden appears on The View
Former President Joe Biden appears on The View to talk about the 2024 campaign
Biden dropped out on July 21, 2024, just 107 days, and not even three and a half months from Election Day.
Biden said that Harris was fully engaged and ‘integral’ to his administration.
‘She was in every aspect, every decision I made, every decision we made,’ he said.
Biden responded to Harris’s widely discussed response on The View, where she stated she wouldn’t have handled the past four years any differently than Biden.
The former president said he did not ‘advise’ Harris against the idea of distancing herself from their successes.
‘I did not advise her to say that, number one,’ he said. ‘Like I said, I was vice president. I understand the role.’
He insisted that Harris was ‘her own person’ in the administration and on the campaign trail.
Jill Biden and Joe Biden laugh during an interview on The View
Biden expresses his disappointment in President Trump’s first 100 days.
‘We argued like hell by the way,’ he said. ‘That’s good … we worked it out, it was a mutual thing.’
Biden blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for making it difficult for any party in power to succeed in the elections, despite his record of success.
‘I just think it was a very tough year across the board,’ Biden said.
But when co-host Joy Behar asked Biden why Trump continued to remain ‘fixated’ on his presidency, Biden replied, ‘I beat him.’
During the segment, Behar brought up Trump’s criticism of Biden’s last-minute pardons for his family, questioning their validity due to the use of an ‘autopen’ for signing.
‘Well he’s vacant,’ Biden replied. ‘C’mon.’
The former president was defiant in response to sources who indicated he was not cognitively functional behind the scenes of the White House even as he announced his campaign for reelection.
‘They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that,’ he said.
Biden’s wife Jill Biden was also dismissive of the books talking about his mental decline, insisting that they did not see what she saw every day at the White House.
‘Joe worked really hard. I think he was a great president and if you look at things today, give me Joe Biden any time,’ she said as the audience applauded.
