Donald Trump laughed off a report that Joe Biden still believes he could have won the 2024 presidential election had he not withdrawn from the race. Trump suggested that Biden’s opportunity was squandered by his disastrous performance in a presidential debate.
Biden, who dropped out of the race in July due to poor polling numbers and a rocky debate performance against his Republican rival, was replaced by Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate. Harris would later lose to Trump in the November election.
“Well, he was way behind, he would’ve really, I assume, not had a chance,” Trump said when questioned by reporters at his New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago.
According to the Washington Post, Biden acknowledged that he had “screwed up” during the June 27 debate against Trump, struggling to form coherent sentences and defend his policies while his opponent took advantage, spewing falsehoods and calling him a criminal.
Earlier this month, Biden also admitted to being “stupid” for not putting his name on the pandemic relief checks his administration issued in 2021. In contrast, Trump made a point of signing the relief checks in 2020, and Biden later suggested that Trump received more credit for the economic recovery as a result.
“I wish him well,” Trump continued, referring to Biden in the press conversation. “He had a chance to do it in the debate, and that didn’t work out too well for him. That was, I guess, the reason that really led to his downfall,” Trump said, as reported by the Daily Beast.
Many Democrats still blame Biden for staying in the race too long and not allowing Vice President Kamala Harris enough time to organize a competitive campaign. At Mar-a-Lago, Trump, 78, expressed confidence for the future, predicting a “great year” for the United States in 2025. “I think we’re gonna do fantastically well as a country.
We’re gonna bring it back, it has to be brought back. People are not respecting our country very much and they gotta respect us a lot,” Trump said. “There’s a whole light over the whole world,” he added. “Not just our country, there are a lot of very happy people.”