Biden insists he would have beaten "loser" Trump
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President Biden speaks at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on Sept. 19. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Biden said he was "confident" that he would have beaten former President Trump in the 2024 election during a Wednesday interview on "The View."
Why it matters: Biden initially resisted calls to withdraw from the 2024 race, even as he faced mounting pressure from members in his party to step aside and polling that showed Trump with an edge.
- Polling after Biden's shaky June debate performance — before he suspended his campaign — also showed that the majority of voters believed the Democratic Party would perform better with a different candidate atop the ticket.
Driving the news: "I never fully believed the assertions that somehow there was this overwhelming reluctance of my running again, I didn't sense that," Biden said on "The View."
- He said his polling "was always within range of beating" Trump.
- "There were some folks who liked to see me step aside, so they have a chance to move on, I get that, that's just human nature, but that wasn't the reason I stepped down."
- He added that he was "confident [he] would beat Trump," calling his former GOP rival "a loser."
Zoom out: After Biden's historic decision to bow out, he immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee.
- Biden said Wednesday that he is at "peace" with his decision to suspend his campaign and praised Harris' qualifications.
- "As vice president, there wasn't a single thing that I did that she couldn't do," Biden said.
Between the lines: Biden's Wednesday appearance is his first live interview since the Democratic National Convention last month.
- When he was running for a second term, Biden largely avoided press conferences and media interviews, drawing pushback from critics who accused his inner circle of shielding the president.
- But now that he's no longer the Democratic presidential candidate, he's slowly ramping up his nonscripted appearances as he seeks to encourage voters to support Harris.
Go deeper: Biden to UN: "Some things are more important than staying in power"
