BBC host Nick Robinson asked Joe Biden point-blank if he “regrets” not dropping out of the presidential race sooner to give someone else a “better chance” to defeat Trump.
The interview was Biden’s first since leaving the White House in January.
Robinson began, “I can hear your passion. I can here your anxiety that the world is changing the way it has. And for a long time you believed–. You said, ‘I’m the man who can stop Donald Trump.'”
“And you did once,” Robinson continued. “And in the end you withdrew from that election campaign at the last minute. It’s a question you know lots of people ask you, Mr. President.”
“Did you leave it too late? Should you have withdrawn earlier, given someone else a bigger chance?” the host asked.
Former President Biden gave his first interview post-presidency to the BBC, on why he decided to stay in the race. pic.twitter.com/qpYyRPeydO
— Dror Moshkovski (@drormosh) May 7, 2025
Many Democrats have long blamed Kamala Harris’ stunning defeat on Biden’s late withdrawal. He did not end up exiting the race until July 2024.
Biden replied, “I don’t think it would have mattered. We left at a time when we had a good candidate, she was fully funded, and what happened was I had become–.”
“What we had set out to do, no one thought we could do. And I’d become so successful on our agenda, it was hard to say, ‘Now I’m gonna stop now.'”
Biden continued, “I meant what I said when I started, that I think I’m prepared to hand this to the next generation, the transition government. But things move so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away, to get, and it was a hard decision. But–”
“Regrets, though?” Robinson interjected.
“No, I think it was the right decision. I think that the— well, It was just a difficult decision,” Biden said.
