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Biden Discusses Race During Interview With 'The View'
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Biden Discusses Race During Interview With 'The View'

In a revealing and at times halting appearance on ABC’s The View, former President Joe Biden acknowledged what few in his party have said out loud: he wasn’t surprised by Kamala Harris’s devastating loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Speaking candidly beside a panel of sympathetic hosts, Biden offered a blend of retrospective commentary, defensive posturing, and subdued resignation—underscoring the gravity of a political defeat that shattered Democratic assumptions.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Biden said plainly. “Not because I didn’t think the vice president wasn’t the most qualified person to be president. She is.” But as the segment unfolded, it became clear that even the former president saw the writing on the wall well before Election Day.


Pressed by Alyssa Farah Griffin and Joy Behar on whether he could have won had he remained in the race, Biden clung to the popular vote metric, noting Trump earned “7 million fewer votes” than in their 2020 matchup. “A lot of people didn’t show up,” Biden said, without addressing why so many stayed home or crossed over. The suggestion was clear: he still believes he could’ve pulled it off.

But numbers don’t lie. Trump flipped all seven of the swing states he lost in 2020—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. It was a landslide in the only arena that matters: the Electoral College. And for the first time since 2004, a Republican presidential candidate also won the popular vote outright, handing Harris and the Democratic establishment a crushing double defeat.


Throughout the interview, Biden danced around the broader implications of his and Harris’s collapse. When asked about Harris’s October claim that she “wouldn’t have changed a thing” about the administration’s term, Biden hedged. “I did not advise her to say that,” he said, before offering a softened walk-back that she “wouldn’t have changed the successes.” But even that rang hollow as the record of rising inflation, unchecked border crossings, and a tone-deaf focus on cultural wedge issues defined Harris’s campaign—factors Democrats now privately admit drove voters away.

According to post-election polling by Blueprint, the top reasons Harris lost were clear and damaging: the economic pinch of inflation, chaos at the southern border, and her perceived prioritization of identity politics over pocketbook concerns.


Biden, however, chose another narrative: that sexism and racial bias were at the core of the defeat. “They went the sexist route… I’ve never seen quite as successful and consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t lead the country—and a woman of mixed race,” he asserted.

Still, there was a detectable weariness in Biden’s tone. When asked whether Harris might now pursue the governorship of California, he demurred: “She’s got a difficult decision to make.” He praised her as “first rate,” but quickly added that the party had “a lot of really good candidates,” as if bracing for a future without her at the forefront.


Biden also lamented what he called a broader global trend: “Liberal democracies all across the world lost last time,” he said, attributing some of the political disillusionment to the lingering effects of COVID-19. It was a sweeping generalization, light on specifics but heavy on the sense of retreat from the ideals he once championed.

Written by Arthur Higgens - May 11, 2025