Former President Joe Biden is pushing back on the significance of his disastrous June 2024 debate performance, telling People magazine in a new interview that he doesn't consider the night a turning point in his failed reelection bid.
“Look, I don't know anybody who hasn't made a mistake in a debate. To me, it was not very consequential,” Biden said in the interview, which was published ahead of the release of his memoir, Promise Me, America, next week.
The former president acknowledged he had expected a second face-off with President Trump, but said the lack of one didn't change his view. “Notwithstanding the fact that there wasn't another debate, it didn't disturb me because it wasn't consequential,” he added.
Biden's halting performance in Atlanta in July 2024 triggered a wave of panic among Democrats, leading to intense pressure from within his own party to step aside. He exited the race a month later and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Shortly after the debate, Biden told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos he had been “feeling terrible” that day.
His wife, former first lady Jill Biden, has offered a more alarming account. In an interview with CBS News earlier this year, she recalled watching the debate and thinking, “Oh my god, he's having a stroke,” adding, “And it scared me to death.”
Four months after leaving office, Biden revealed he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He flatly denied any attempt to conceal the illness, telling People, “I didn't do that. We let the public know when I found out, when I knew what was going on.” He argued that national leaders should be transparent about health struggles, saying, “I wasn't hiding it at all.”
Biden also said that had he known about the cancer before the campaign, he would not have run again. “If I had known that I was feeling lousy because I had cancer, I would have resigned — I would have not gone forward because I don't think an 80-year-old man should be running for [president],” he said. He maintained, however, that “on an objective basis, I was the best person to do the job.”
The remarks come as Biden's memoir offers a broader defense of his legacy and his decision to bow out. In the book, he also reveals a letter from Trump urging him to “choose your place in history.” Meanwhile, Biden has trimmed his memoir tour events as he continues cancer treatment.
