President Biden still regrets dropping out of the 2024 presidential race last summer after mounting pressure from Democrats to step aside, according to a report.
The president recently told people that he still believes he could have beaten Trump in the November election, despite his rough debate performance in June and his low approval numbers that forced him to leave the race, according to the Washington Post, citing people familiar with the conversations.
Following the June 27 debate, more and more Democrats began to call for him to drop out every day, so another person could run in his place.
The president also saw much of his funding dry up last summer as donors began to doubt his chances of beating Trump.
Biden left the race on July 21, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who had just over three months to campaign before the election.
Trump beat Harris by 2.2 million votes.
Biden has been careful not to blame Harris while insisting to aides that he could have won, the Post reported.
Even when he dropped out, Biden still believed he could beat Trump – whom he defeated for his first term in 2020, according to the New York Times in September.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., may disagree.
Clyburn, who met with Biden earlier this year, told the Post that he had told the president, ‘Your style does not lend itself well to the environment we’re currently in,’ while speaking of style versus substance.
Biden national security advisor Jake Sullivan told the Post: ‘How to govern at this moment to set the U.S. up for long-term success has one answer, and how to govern to deal with midterm and presidential elections in the very short-term might have a different answer. The president went with doing the things that really put America in a strong position.’
Among acknowledgments of other mistakes – including his debate performance – Biden has also said that he regrets picking Merrick Garland as attorney general, the Post reported.
Convinced to do so by aides who said that Garland would be a consensus pick, Biden has privately said that he feels Garland moved too slowly on prosecuting Trump, while also claiming his son Hunter had been prosecuted too aggressively.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.