President Joe Biden defended his decision to drop out of the 2024 race during a BBC interview that aired Wednesday, maintaining that the timing of his withdrawal wouldn’t have changed the ultimate result of the election.
At age 82, Biden exited the race on July 21, following intense pressure from within the Democratic Party after a widely criticized debate showing against President Donald Trump on June 27.
His departure left Kamala Harris, who was serving as vice president, just over three months to launch a full-fledged campaign. Ultimately, she lost to Trump in the general election.
“We left at a time when we had a good candidate,” Biden told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program, marking his first broadcast appearance since leaving the presidency on January 20. “She was fully funded, and what happened was, what we had set out to do, no one thought we could do.”
He reflected on the difficulty of stepping down, noting how far his administration had come. “We had become so successful in our agenda, it was hard to say, ‘I’m gonna stop now.’”
Biden reiterated that his original intention was always to serve one term and help transition power to the next generation after defeating Trump in 2020.
“I meant what I said when I started, that I’m preparing to hand this to the next generation … but things moved so quickly, and it made it difficult to walk away.”
Harris ultimately became the first Democrat in two decades to lose both the Electoral College and the national popular vote, despite raising around $1 billion in the six weeks after she assumed the role of presumptive nominee.
In one of his parting interviews, Biden told USA Today that he believed he still could have beaten Trump had he stayed in the race. But he conceded uncertainty over whether he could physically and mentally handle another four years in the White House.
The BBC sat down with Biden on Monday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, as part of its coverage commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
While Biden refrained from mentioning Trump directly, he sharply criticized the administration’s response to Russia’s extended military campaign in Ukraine, accusing it of enabling Vladimir Putin through inaction.
“Listen to what Putin said when he talked about going from Kyiv into Ukraine, and why,” Biden said. “He believes it’s part of Mother Russia. He believes [he has] a historical right to Ukraine. He can’t stand the fact that the Russian dictatorship that he runs, that the Soviet Union has collapsed. And anybody that thinks he’s gonna stop is just foolish.”
The Trump administration has floated the possibility that Ukraine may have to concede Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, in order to reach a peace agreement—something Ukraine’s government has consistently rejected as unconstitutional.
“I just don’t understand,” Biden said, “how people think that if we allow a dictator, a thug, to decide he’s going to take significant portions of land that aren’t his, that that’s going to satisfy him. I don’t quite understand.”
Recently, U.S. officials have pushed both Kyiv and Moscow to move faster toward a potential settlement, while also suggesting Washington might step back from its intermediary role.
“You’ve got a guy who wants to walk away from it all,” Biden said. “I’m worried that Europe is going to lose confidence in the certainty of America and the leadership of America in the world, to deal with not only NATO, but other matters of consequence.”
He also stood by the level of military and diplomatic support his administration had provided to Ukraine during his time in office. “We gave them everything they needed to provide for their independence, and we were prepared to respond, more aggressively, if Putin moved again,” Biden told the show’s host, Nick Robinson.
Toward the end of the interview, Biden blasted Trump’s talk of expanding U.S. territory, including remarks about annexing Canada, Greenland, and even the Panama Canal.
“What the hell’s going on here? What president ever talks like that? That’s not who we are,” the former commander-in-chief said. “We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity, not about confiscation.”

{Matzav.com}