Former President Joe Biden said he was not surprised that former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, blaming her defeat on sexism and racism.
Co-host Sara Haines asked the president if he was surprised Harris lost to Trump in November, noting Democrats’ optimism after Biden decided to withdraw from the race.
“I was not surprised, and not because I did not believe the vice president was the best candidate for the presidency. Yes, she is. She is qualified to become President of the United States of America. I was surprised, because they took the sexist route.
I mean, this is a woman; she is this and that. I mean, I have never seen a more successful and consistent campaign undermining the notion that a woman, particularly a woman of mixed race, could not lead the country,” Biden said.
“Anyway, think about it. Liberal democracies lost last time out across America. I believe we underestimate the phenomenal negative impact that COVID and the pandemic had on people, attitudes, optimism, and a variety of other factors, so I was very disappointed – but not surprised. The only thing that surprised me was how far they went with some of their attacks,” Biden continued.
Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, roughly a month after a disastrous debate performance against Trump, and endorsed Harris to replace him on the ticket.
Biden was asked if he had spoken with Harris recently about her next steps. The former president stated that Harris has sought his opinion on the next step, but would not reveal what it is.
Biden’s appearance on “The View” followed an interview with the BBC in which he discussed Trump’s foreign policy and his decision to withdraw from the race.
The former president told the BBC that it would not have “mattered” if he had withdrawn from the race sooner.
“We left at a time when we had a good candidate,” Biden stated about Harris.
“It was a hard decision,” Biden said of his decision to withdraw from the race. “I believe it was the correct decision. “It was simply a difficult decision.”
Biden claimed that because his term was so successful, it was difficult to hand over leadership to a new generation as quickly as he had planned.
“What we had set out to do, no one thought we could do,” he told me. “I had become so successful with our agenda that it was difficult to say, ‘I am going to stop now.'” I meant what I said when I started: I am preparing to hand this over to the next generation, the transition of government. Things moved so quickly that it was difficult to walk away.