Ahead of farewell address on Wednesday, Biden says party doubted he could ‘even move’
Outgoing US President Joe Biden on Friday said that he would have won the presidential election, defeating Republican Donald Trump, had he not decided to withdraw from the race mid-way for the sake of the unity of the Democratic Party.
Biden, who is set to deliver a farewell address to the nation next week, also added that Kamala Harris could have also beaten Trump.
Joe Biden was asked during a news conference at the White House if he regrets his decision to not run for re-election.
“Mr President, do you regret your decision to not run for re-election? Do you think that that made it easier for your predecessor to now become your successor?” news agency PTI quoted the question asked to Biden at the White House.
Biden replied, ““I don’t think so. I think I would have beaten Trump, could have beaten Trump and I think that Kamala (Harris) could have beaten Trump, would have beaten Trump.”
‘Party was worried whether I could move’
President Joe Biden will deliver a farewell address to the nation on Wednesday, January 15, from the Oval Office of White House, five days before President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday that Joe Biden would reflect on his “50-plus years as a public official” in his speech Monday.
The outgoing president said at the Whit House that he thought it was important to “unify the party”, adding that while the party doubted about whether or not he could even move, he decided to pull out of the race despite believing he could win again.
“It wasn’t about — I thought it was important to unify the party and when the party was worried about whether or not I was going to be able to move even though I thought I could win again, I thought it was better to unify the party,” the report quoted Biden as saying.
Joe Biden called his stint as president of the United States as the “greatest honour of his life”. He, however, said he did not “want to be the one who caused a party that wasn’t unified to lose an election.”
And that’s why I stepped aside, Biden said, adding that he was confident Kamala Harris could win.
The 82-year-old Democratic leader decided to pull out of the US President election against Donald Trump post his performance at the presidential debate in Atlanta in June last year, which was termed disastrous.
After Biden withdrew from the race mid-way, he endorsed his running mate Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.
Kamala Harris lost the election to Trump, with the polls resulting in a clean sweep for the Republican Party, which not only recaptured the White House, maintained its majority in the House of Representatives but also got a majority in the Senate.