OAN Staff Abril Elfi and Sophia Flores
1:43 PM – Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Former President Joe Biden has stated that he doesn’t think he left the 2024 race too late, despite criticism claiming Biden didn’t give the Democrat Party ample amount of time to find a candidate who would’ve been able to defeat President Donald Trump, stating “I don’t think it would have mattered.”
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During an interview with BBC News reporter Nick Robinson, Biden was asked if he felt like he left the presidential race too late, to which he responded that he didn’t believe his decision and its timing ultimately changed the results of the election.
The former president dropped out of the presidential race just over three months – 106 days – before the November 2024 election.
“I don’t think it would have mattered,” Biden said during his first interview since leaving the White House when he was asked whether the election outcome would’ve been different if he had stepped aside sooner.
“It’s a question lots of people ask you, Mr. President – did you leave it too late? Should you have withdrawn earlier, given someone else a bigger chance?” Robinson asked.
“We left at a time when we had a good candidate,” Biden said, speaking of former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was quickly supported by the Democrat Party to become its new candidate. “She was fully funded.”
“It was a hard decision,” Biden said. “I think it was the right decision. It was just a difficult decision.”
When asked again if Harris was put in a difficult spot by him not giving up on his re-election bid earlier, the former president said that he “didn’t think so.”
“I don’t know how that would have made much difference,” the 82-year-old stated.
Biden then said that because his team was so successful, it was difficult to hand over leadership to a new generation immediately, as he’d initially intended.
“We had become so successful in our agenda, it was hard to say, ‘I’m gonna stop now,’” Biden said.
Harris went on to become the first Democrat presidential candidate in two decades to lose the Electoral College and the popular vote. This major defeat came despite raising over $1 billion within the first six weeks of becoming her party’s presumptive nominee.
During one of his final interviews during his last days in office, Biden told USA Today that he believes that if he would’ve stayed in the race, he could’ve beaten Trump.
“It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,” Biden said during his January interview when asked he believes he would’ve won reelection. The president added that he felt that way due to polling he had received.
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