July 21, 2024. Joe Biden’s aborted presidential campaign ends somewhat pathetically. A month earlier, on June 27, 2024, the octogenarian president completely lost his footing against Donald Trump during a televised debate. But Joe Biden, convinced of his chances of victory despite unfavorable polls and a decrease in donations, held on for several weeks, under the incredulous eyes of the world and the Democratic Party, before withdrawing his candidacy in favor of Kamala Harris .
Several months after his failed campaign, Joe Biden nevertheless regrets having withdrawn from the race for the White House and even thinks that he could have beaten Donald Trump, according to advisers who confided has The Washington Post. The famous American daily thus interviewed around twenty people close to Joe Biden for a long investigation.
“Joe Biden and some of his aides still believe he should have stayed in the race, despite his tough debate results and low poll numbers that prompted Democrats to pressure him to drop out,” it said. The Washington Post. “Joe Biden and his aides have told people in recent days that he could have beaten Donald Trump, according to people with knowledge of their comments, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations,” the newspaper adds. American. Joe Biden had already declared September 24 at The View on ABC that he was “at peace” after withdrawing from the 2024 election, but that he remained confident that he would have beaten the Republican candidate if he had remained a candidate: “I was “I’m sure I would beat Donald Trump,” he said.
Asked by The Washington PostDemocratic Senator from Connecticut Richard Blumenthal analyzed the reasons for the failure of the outgoing president: “Joe Biden presented himself on the promise that he would be a transitional president and that he would have a mandate before transmitting it to another generation I think his new candidacy has shattered that concept. In addition, some close to the Democrat believe that he made political decisions based on the long term, which would have been detrimental to him politically. “The president acted on a time horizon measured in decades, while the political cycle is measured in four years,” said Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s national security adviser to the Washington Post. Jake Sullivan added that Joe Biden’s accomplishments, by their nature, will take a long time to bear fruit.
Joe Biden also regrets the “slowness” of Merrick Garland
Separately, privately, Joe Biden also said he should have chosen someone other than Merrick Garland as attorney general. Joe Biden would have complained about the “slowness” of the Justice Department of the outgoing Democratic administration under Merrick Garland in prosecuting Donald Trump and would also have complained about its aggressiveness in the legal proceedings against his son Hunter Biden, according to several sources interviewed by the American media.
During the 2020 presidential transition, Joe Biden’s choice of attorney general provoked opposition from some of his closest aides. Some Democrats now believe the decision had devastating consequences. If the Justice Department had moved more quickly to prosecute Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election and mishandling classified documents, they say, the Republican billionaire could have faced a politically damaging trial before the 2024 presidential election.