In a moment equal parts defiant and delusional, former President Joe Biden returned to the public stage Thursday with claims that he would have once again defeated Donald J. Trump—had he remained in the 2024 race. Appearing on ABC’s The View with former First Lady Jill Biden at his side, Biden fielded questions from the cohosts about his July withdrawal from the race, Kamala Harris’s floundering campaign, and the aftermath of his late-June debate debacle.
NEW: Jill Biden has to rescue Joe Biden after he is asked about allegations concerning his mental decline.
Well, there is your answer.
Question: What is your response to allegations regarding your mental decline?
Biden: *Rambles about the Civil War and COVID*
Jill Biden:… pic.twitter.com/UXJKdGaN0E
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 8, 2025
“I could’ve won,” Biden told cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin, despite a national consensus that the train had long since left the station. It was a bold assertion for a man who exited the race after a historically poor debate performance that sent shockwaves through the Democratic establishment and lit a fire under calls for new leadership.
Griffin pointed out the glaring numbers: Trump won every battleground state. He gained ground across virtually all key demographics. The electoral map was no mystery—Biden’s path to victory had vanished before his own eyes. And yet, he pressed on with the idea that victory was still within reach.
“Yes, he still got less — it wasn’t a slam dunk,” Biden insisted, pointing out that Trump’s 2024 vote total was lower than Biden’s 2020 showing. The math, while technically accurate, ignores a simple political truth: this wasn’t 2020. Enthusiasm, turnout, and momentum were all firmly on Trump’s side, and Biden’s aging image and verbal missteps had become too large to ignore—even for his own party.
When the conversation shifted to Kamala Harris and her failure to rally the Democratic base, Biden offered little insight but much indignation. “I wasn’t surprised,” he said, before pivoting to blame her defeat on sexism and racism. “I’ve never seen quite a successful and consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t lead the country—and a woman of mixed race.”
Harris, who entered the race as the presumptive nominee after Biden’s departure, failed to consolidate support even among her own base. The comparison to 2016—when Hillary Clinton lost to Trump despite nearly universal institutional backing—wasn’t lost on cohost Sara Haines. “It was like 2016 all over again,” she lamented.
Biden acknowledged having spoken to Harris just one day earlier but declined to elaborate on the conversation. If their exchange was meant to reset the party’s trajectory or to offer strategic advice, it didn’t translate to voter confidence—at least not yet.