Hillary Clinton bashed former President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection bid as a “terrible mistake” that had major repercussions for the country and his legacy.
Clinton contended that Democrats would’ve been able to defeat President Trump if Biden had stepped aside and allowed a new generation of political talent to emerge.
“He made a terrible mistake,” Clinton told New Yorker editor David Remnick at a 92nd Street Y, New York event. “He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy, and for the country.”
“We would have had a real contest,” she mused about what would’ve happened if Biden didn’t run. “And very sadly I believe whoever emerged from that contest, whether it was the vice president or a governor or a senator or anybody else, would have beaten Donald Trump.”
“So I think it was a terrible miscalculation on the part of President Biden.”
A little over three years ago, Clinton was asked about whether Biden should run for a second term and deferred to him.
“I think he’s done a really terrific job and so yes, I want him to run if that’s what he wants to do, and of course, I’ll support him,” she told Forbes in 2023.
Following Biden’s fumbling, stone-faced debate performance against Trump in 2024, Clinton remained publicly supportive of the 46th president despite a mutiny among Democrats that had ensued.
Clinton had lost to Trump in 2016, and Biden managed to defeat him in 2020. Some of Biden’s inner circle strongly felt that he was the only Democrat who could take down Trump.
In the time since, some of Biden’s closest allies have conceded it was a mistake for him to run.
Former first lady Jill Biden recently admitted that if she could do it all over again, she would’ve pushed her husband against seeking a second term.
Clinton pointed to Biden’s past remarks in 2020 about being a “bridge” to the next generation of talent within the Democratic Party.
“Once he didn’t move and did not admit that he had said he was going to step aside and decided not to and held on for as long as he did, we were in a terrible dilemma,” she stressed.
Ultimately, Biden stepped aside on July 21, 2024, giving then-Vice President Kamala Harris 107 days to lead the Democratic ticket against Trump.
