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.
just like he beat Medicare?
No, he wouldn’t have.
But of course he would think that. 🙄🙄
I agree, but it deserves more discussion than just “No.”
Eh, does it? The whole reason he was pushed out was because he was a combination of personally incoherent and organizationally sheltered from reality. His opinion on his own greatness has little value.
I agree.
They would have kept showing that first debate performance over and over as a reason Joe is too old, and it would have worked.
I mean he already had, and if he had capitalized on how a LOSER was going to try and LOSE again because he was a huge loser I think he might have swayed many of the minds
I mean he might have, a lot of people that voted for Biden in 2020 did not vote for Kamala in 2024 for various reasons. Trump did only very slightly better in 2024 than be did in 2020. Would the people who stayed home and didn’t vote for Kamala have gotten out and voted for Biden? Maybe. If anything though Biden should have dropped out sooner or not ran at all, the DNC should have fielded better candidates, instead they spent 4 years (longer) trying to strangle any progressives before they could become feasible candidates.
His own internal polling had trump winning over 400 versus him
The Joe Biden who showed up in 2020 would have beaten Trump. Joe Biden in 2024 is not the same guy.
The only real asset Joe had over Kamala, though, is a penis. For some voters, though, that’s enough to make them pick one and not the other.
For some voters, though, that’s enough to make them pick one and not the other.
Those voters would’ve picked Trump over Biden anyway. The Democrats will never, ever win by falling over themselves to court those types of voters at the expense of progressives and leftists.
But Liz Cheney supported Kamala…
Look at all these Republicans who say, “Don’t vote for Trump.”
Surely that’ll work…
One of the Republican talking points was that Kamala never won a primary and just snuck in. Not that it mattered for her actual policies but more so it was another reason for votor apathy
A white penis.
Well that’s disturbing image I can’t get out of my head, lost circulation or just old?
I mean he might have
No. “We finally beat Medicaid” Biden would have lost, bigly.
If anything though Biden should have dropped out sooner or not ran at all
Yes, 100% this. He should have been the transitional president he signaled he’d be, before being elected in 2020.
I actually think that Biden won the election because of the primary campaign against Bernie. Bernie shifted the platform left and attracted young voters to the party that subsequently voted for Biden in the general election (even if they had to hold their noses). Nothing like a primary to unite voters behind the candidate.
A lot of people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 spent the next four years getting poorer.
Kamala lost because she promised to be four more years of the same thing.
Depends how senile he would be or not be. What killed him was the debate, if there was another one and he was fully fine, then yeah a decent chance.
The US president has reportedly also said he made a mistake in choosing Merrick Garlandas 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
At least that part is fair
I’d say his first mistake was choosing Garland. Biden then made a second mistake when he didn’t immediately fire Garland as soon as it became obvious that Garland wasn’t going to do his job.
So it’s everybody else’s fault.
said he made a mistake
He literally said it was his.
No, he literally said his mistake was selecting Garland. There were many other mistakes, and opportunities for him to push Garland even after he had been selected.
That’s the taking responsibility equivalent of “I’m sorry you feel that way” apology.
It’s been absolutely appalling how long it has taken to prosecute Trump.
All the lame considerations about looks and not getting involved is idiotic. if the politicians in power don’t work to defend democracy, who else should?
The left have been screaming for Democrats to wake up for more than a decade, but they behave like a party with dementia that doesn’t understand what’s going on around them.
As AOC has stated multiple times, people will come to vote for you, if you give them a good enough reason for it. Harris was the better more moderate candidate. But I think most Americans want more, they want real change.
Preventing a fascist narcissist becoming president apparently wasn’t enough?!Remember how there was already a document produced by a special prosecutor that said there were crimes committed but a sitting president couldn’t be prosecuted? Just fucking memory holed by Garland’s DOJ. He literally could have taken that up the day he was confirmed.
Yeah except he disappeared ages ago.
He could have defeated medicare too.
Seems like this is his way of arrogantly throwing Harris under the bus for his own historically low ratings, starting back in 2022 after Roe was lost. Theres no way he could have done better than Harris. With him running it would have been an even bigger blowout. He seems to think he could run a genocide against his parties wishes and then go on to win an election. Its idiotic.
The statistics and composite polls predicted the Trump victory, and they predicted it even before Biden dropped out by a larger margin, so he is incorrect.
But, given how people chose Trump over Kamala, I can’t blame him for thinking that way. Clearly the USA does have reservations about electing a women and a minority.
Oh no he doesn’t get to say anything about it. He shit the bed, and his team shit the bed. Then when they were staring at polls showing Trump would take 400 electoral college votes they doubled down. They didn’t start a hand off in the background like everyone assumed. No they wasted nearly a month and then called up Kamala Harris one day and told her she was the candidate now, with no warning.
If anyone is responsible for Trump winning it is Biden and his team. They hid how bad Biden was aging instead of getting a ton of grown-up points by having him retire or get removed by the 25th amendment. That would have given Kamala Harris a year or two of time in office to get the incumbent advantage and set up a real campaign. No they played this like little boys who don’t want to come home because then the party ends.
It’s weird to say, but Harris was like the third most responsible person for her loss. She still is responsible, but Biden and Garland set her up for failure.
His regret should be that he left so late.
on no fucking planet is this the case. Also, him hanging on as long as he did, didn’t help things. It’s not like the Harris campaign did themselves any favors, but was clear not one person the the management caste of the DNC really gave a fuck about winning.
Oh, they wanted to win but only on their terms.
They seem to fundamentally believe the electorate are all dumb as fuck and everything would be so much better if they just did as they were told.
They certainly seem to believe that the electorate love voting for the second stinkiest turd.
He should have announced he wasn’t running in 2023 to give dems a chance to run a legit primary.
They don’t care about winning, because it changes nothing for them. If they win, they keep taking kickbacks and bribes. If they lose, they keep taking kickbacks and bribes.
If they win, they wring their hands about how they can’t do what they want, so it’s not even worth trying. If they lose, they wring their hands about things they can’t stop, so it’s not even worth trying.
It’s win-win for them. It’s lose-lose for us.
Money in politics is always the case, and being in the opposition where you can make deals and promises for when you are back in power is big money.
It’s like how the hour of Roe v. Wade being overturned, people got texts wanting money to put it back into place with the next president.
The president can’t just declare abortion legal or illegal, my $5 isn’t going to help a candidate get elected when millions are spent on a press tour in one day. There’s a clear reason why they do it.
That’s okay Joe, there is a lot of regret about your entire administration, and career, on all sides.
no. any idiots that did not vote for kamala to avoid a second trump term would likely not have voted for him. win for gaza or something.
Well, Trump will make sure we don’t have to worry about Palestine anymore-as it will just be more Israel.
That was already the game under Biden. There was zero attempts to actually prevent annexation of Gaza. Just a lot of finger waving while they sent more shit and even US troops.
I’d like to hear from one of those ass-hats that were protesting about Palestine outside Harris rallies.
You’re not in a position to talk down to anyone, are you. Centrists just lost every single lever of government and their reputation has never been worse. They’ve turned the democratic party into a big joke on their watch.
Every time you guys talk things just get worse. Maybe its time to sit down and take a look at where you’re at instead of talking. At the very least, your talking wont help anything, now will it.
Oh please. There’s some real pot kettle black in this comment.
Besides which, I’m not from the US, and I think the entire developed world is in a position to talk down to anyone from the US, in particular those who acted against their own interests by protesting against their best candidate, and assisting to install a dictator.
Honestly, one of us really does need to engage in some self reflection.
Oh right youre australian. I see that Australia has a center left and a center right party. Thats so neat.
And you say:
the entire developed world is in a position to talk down to anyone from the US
Well that desire to “talk down to” and the fact that both parties in Australia are centrist certainly explains the tone of your comments. I’ve often decried to my friends, “But who will speak for the political tourists who want to do drive by knowledge droppings???” Its a big concern thats seldom addressed. Its right up there wih, “But what do the fascists all think? How can we be truly centrist and bipartisan if we dont understand what they want?? who speaks for them? can we get them a seat next to Harris maybe? Maybe they can campaign together even!” I’m super concerned to know the details of the fascist plans so I can set my own agenda to be just to the left of theirs, as is proper. If the fascist dont tell me how to think, then I lack any guideposts at all, right. Centrism aint easy.
So you’re just here to “talk down to” people in a system you’re not a member of at all, and you bring with you a profoundly inbred sense of centrism. So glad you’re here to school us americans withy your keen insights on american culture. Read some blogs about America, did you? cool. So let me guess what your advice would be here, we need a stronger sense of centrism in the US and everything will be OK, am I right?
This obsession with “centrism” is so tiresome.
Left, right, and centre is subjective. Any country with a two party system is going to have a centre left and centre right.
If you’re a major party in a two party system the only way possible way to attract enough votes to form government is to have policies as close as possible to your opponent whilst simultaneously differentiating yourself so as to be identified as “the best option” to any voters on your side of the political spectrum. This dynamic of political science is well established, and patently obvious to everyone but a handful of 16 year old idiots who think they’re the first generation in the history of the world to want things to be better than they are.
Your big "I see that Australia has… " reveal sadly says more about your very limited understanding of politics in your own country than it does about my perspective.
If you’re a major party in a two party system the only way possible way to attract enough votes to form government is to have policies as close as possible to your opponent whilst simultaneously differentiating yourself
This is absolutely hilarious stuff, thank you.
Ah yes, hilarity. The classic resort of a child when confronted with a concept beyond their comprehension.
How dare they be against centrism’s defining policy?
I’ve taken a few weeks away from Lemmy since the election and now apparently the dems are centrist?
You have a 2 party system. Of which one is the most conservative and one is the most progressive. The more often you elect the more progressive party the more progressive both parties will become.
To suggest that both parties are too conservative is patently absurd and speaks of a complete lack of understanding of your political system.
I’ve taken a few weeks away from Lemmy since the election and now apparently the dems are centrist?
Now? They spent the past year supporting genocide. That is not and will never be a progressive policy. Don’t lie about progressives to make genocide supporters look good.
I would say “wow, the dementia is even farther along than we realized” but it’s likely the entire neoliberal faction that will be determined to come to this erroneous conclusion. They will grasp at any straw, even racist/sexist ones, in order to avoid admitting that the electorate is crying out for anti-corporate change.
What do you mean neoliberal faction?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
Neoliberals are guys like Elon Musk.
Yes, I know what neoliberalism is and yes, I really do mean that.
The dominant faction of the Democratic Party is, in fact, neoliberal. As a result, the party’s platform as a whole supports free-market capitalism, free trade, low regulations, weak worker protections, etc.
That’s why (for example) Hillary Clinton championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and why politicians like Elizabeth Warren and AOC who care about things like workers’ rights and Wall Street reform are among the minority within the party.
Neoliberals are guys like Elon Musk.
No, Neoliberals are guys like Elon Musk pretended to be before he came out as full-blown fascist.
No you don’t. You just want a word for super evil. The TPP is not in any way, shape, or form Neoliberal. And the Democrats just finished four years of fighting tooth and nail to get more regulation of industry into place. I’m not a fan of them but this is just ridiculous.
The TPP is not in any way, shape, or form Neoliberal.
This just proves you have no clue whatsoever what neoliberalism is.
Thank you for literally being the first person I’ve ever seen online that actually seems to know what Warren stands for. Not exaggerating even the slightest, either.
She could’ve been president, back when it would’ve mattered.
I worry that neoliberalism may need fascism in order to be fully realized.
Oh dude lemmy has decided that there are no normal liberals left. It’s progressives and neoliberals. And no amount of reasoning, showing them academic materials, or engaging with the tenets of the ideologies will shift it. Neoliberals is the new “rich people I don’t like” label.
So… I take it he’s completely forgotten that disastrous debate by now huh? It was pretty clear to even the most fervent Biden supporters that he wasn’t going to win. When even those folks were telling him to resign, it as done by that point.
If anything, staying in would’ve driven more people to Trump or caused them to stay home due to disillusionment.
of course he’s forgotten
It was painful to watch. It’s even more painful that he put us in this position. Now he is rubbing salt in the wound.
He is hopelessly arrogant and not the brightest.
of course he forgot… he forgets all sorts of things….
He certainly seemed like a patient who had escaped the memory care unit. I still remember my wife came in to see how it was going, she saw my face and turned right around. There just wasn’t any recovery to that. I would not have been surprised if Adult Protective Services had showed up on that stage.
I just hope they don’t think Harris lost because she didn’t have enough time and then run her again in 2028, either without a primary or with a heavily one-sided primary like in 2016.
You know they will. They don’t care what people want.
Nah, they’ll pivot back to a white guy.
They’re going to give the nomination to Mitt Romney.
It’ll be Blinken or Shapiro.
I’m not sure ol’ Mitt is corporate enough for the current democratic party
Ok, they have a backup plan. Their other pick will be someone even more well suited to appeal to Republicans. In fact, they have experience in politics and were even a minor Democratic Primary nomination contender several years back. They have appeal in the South, and they should have a solid lock on Georgia, and maybe even be able to finally turn Texas blue! And he’ll appeal well to the younger generations, as he has even run a Republican and third party presidential candidate in the past. Younger voters will love a candidate with such multi-partisan cred.
Let me introduce you to 2028 Democratic Presidential nominee David Duke!
That sounds like that may be current dem plan for future elections. Good summary
Fucking wanker. Let him eat megashitdicks.
This ghoul was propped up in 2020 with the full force of the party and then won thanks to covid, but he thinks he’s some hero. Democrats lost in 2024 in large part thanks to him. Fuck you biden, you racist, genocidal, and power-hungry piece of shit.
Things would have likely gone a lot better if the Ds would have had an actual primary. It’s so frustrating.
Actual primaries are against what the DNC wants. 2016, 2020, and 2024 all had sham ones and argued in court “We don’t have to have fair ones, it’s mainly for show. We’re a private organization, we don’t need to abide by fair election practices.”
