Joe Biden said on The View that he “wasn’t surprised” that Kamala Harris lost and he thinks that if he had continued to run he would have won. Do you think he has a point?

r/

Here’s the clip

I don’t really think he’s correct, but I think he may actually have had a better chance than she did.

Comments

  1. AutoModerator Avatar

    The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.

    Here’s the clip

    I don’t really think he’s correct, but I think he may actually have had a better chance than she did.

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  2. Pineapple_Gamer123 Avatar

    Definitely not. Trump would’ve won by even more if that crusty old piece of shit stayed in the race

  3. McZootyFace Avatar

    No he definitely does not have a point. Everyone who had eyes and/or ears knew he was cooked after that first debate. The attacks from GOP, Trump and social media would be crazy. Least with Harris there were neutralised on many attack vectors.

  4. mikeys327 Avatar

    All they had to do was have a primary. Harris was unpopular, hence why she received 0% when she first ran for president

  5. Komosion Avatar

    He is also still trying to say that his mental state is top notch and that people in and around his administration who say otherwise are lieing.

    He is eather trying to save face or he really believes what he is saying. Eather way I wouldn’t put much stock in it.

    He messed up what ever legacy he might have had by not following through with his pledge to be a one term president … the question I always wonder is why? What was so important that he couldn’t take his leave when the writing was so very visibly on the wall? 

  6. Fun_East8985 Avatar

    If the first debate went better, maybe. Otherwise, unfortunately not. I say this as a Biden supporter

  7. oiAmazedYou Avatar

    hes too bloody old, why doesnt sleepy joe get it

    why dont the democrats get a young competent leader ffs

  8. docfarnsworth Avatar

    It was a shit place to be. Joe really couldn’t run after that debate and Harris was never that popular.

  9. usernames_suck_ok Avatar

    At this point, I just think he’s an asshole.

  10. my23secrets Avatar

    Biden is not only wrong, he hobbled the Harris campaign by not resigning in the first place.

    Biden resigns, Harris becomes first female POTUS, glass ceiling broken, voters see world doesn’t end, Harris wins election.

    Biden has always been the problem here.

  11. OrangeVoxel Avatar

    So selfish and narcissist of him to throw the country under the bus by not stepping down earlier and allowing an open primary

  12. InternationalJob9162 Avatar

    No I felt that after the debate he lost any chance of winning another election. In my opinion Harris had a better chance and was set up to fail due to him dropping out so late.

  13. GreatResetBet Avatar

    He’s on hospice palliative care levels of copium.

  14. sokolov22 Avatar

    This is like anyone thinking Clinton had a chance the first time around.

  15. bucky001 Avatar

    No, I think he’s wrong. I think Harris did better than Biden would’ve.

  16. slingshot91 Avatar

    He’s delusional.

  17. Competitive-Bat-43 Avatar

    Honestly…..and I want to vomit as I say this. I agree with him.

    There is nothing that Americans hate more than a woman in power….

  18. brucebananaray Avatar

    He said Kamala lost due to sexism and she is 100% qualified to be President.

    He is right that sexism does play a role in why she lost and this country isn’t 100% honest about it.

    Even Bill Clinton said something similar about it when she lost.

  19. SuperRocketRumble Avatar

    Biden almost certainly wouldn’t have done better. Very likely would have done worse.

  20. TheSoup05 Avatar

    No. Obviously we don’t have crystal balls to see an alternate timeline, but I can’t see any angle someone could use to argue Biden would’ve been better.

    His polling numbers were worse, his debate performance was atrocious, every public appearance he did after that was full of gaffs that just reaffirmed people’s fears after the debate, and he clearly didn’t have the juice to run a real active or effective campaign.

    He should’ve dropped out much sooner when it was clear he wasn’t up for another campaign and his polling was painting a bleak picture. I think Biden was a good president who played a rough hand well, and then totally whiffed it by refusing to step aside when it was obvious he should have.

  21. washtucna Avatar

    The polls, from my recollection, would have put Biden at a steeper loss than Harris. It’s possible that Biden could have won, but from my perspective, it’s far from a solid bet.

  22. RioTheLeoo Avatar

    No. He’s a fool who played a major role in kneecapping Harris and directly diminishing any chance of trump losing

  23. Cyclotrom Avatar

    I loved the man. I still love him. I think Kamala was the worst candidate ever, I mean that. I said that in 2016 when she was picked as VP. After the second debate there is not way he win. He would’ve been better off canceling the debate.

  24. Queasy-Trash8292 Avatar

    No. I don’t think he would have won. 

  25. ausgoals Avatar

    He’s delusional. His hubris ruined his legacy.

  26. worlds_okayest_skier Avatar

    There is nothing they could have done to win. They drew a pair of twos. I dont think it’s anyone’s fault except Joe for not doing one term.

  27. Interesting-Shame9 Avatar

    No he’s just flat out wrong

    The establishment dems only pulled their support after that disastrous debate and internal polling showed that his loss would be catastrophic.

    I think it’s an ego thing for him, but fundamentally he hasn’t really analyzed why he was pulled or why harris lost.

    Like, imagine if he did stay in. Then all the dems who promised to pull their support would’ve and so the who democratic party would have continued to be against him, on top of trump, and his own popularity.

    The guy had like a 30% approval rating, during a time of high inflation and a broader cost of living crisis, while presiding over 2 wars one of which was splitting the democratic party in half. Like…. had he stayed in none of the above would’ve changed.

    Is it somewhat unfair his approval rating was that low? yeah, i think so. I felt after the afghanistan withdrawal and never really recovered. I dislike biden a lot, but the one thing I will give him credit for is he pulled out of afghanistan. He was the one guy who ended the war. Did he do it in the best way? No. Is there some criticism to make of how he withdrew? yes. But fundamentally, there’s isn’t a dignified way to lose a war.

    But yeah, no, he’s just wrong. Like dead wrong. His loss would’ve been even worse than Harris’s.

  28. hitman2218 Avatar

    He had no chance after his own party sicced the media on him.

  29. Deep-Two7452 Avatar

    Nah not gonna criticize him when the other side never says anything negative about dear leader trump

  30. DHooligan Avatar

    No, he’s either completely delusional or trying to rewrite history. He was likely to lose before his debate. The debate wasn’t damaging just because it went poorly, it confirmed the perception that he was too old to be president. He was a weak, unpopular candidate, and had completely lost control of the narrative. He had no chance. Harris had some chance, but couldn’t overcome the hole Biden dug for her. The worst thing she did was keep his failure of a campaign staff, who seemed to want to convince her that Biden was strong and popular. She needed to distinguish herself from him, not insist everything he did was good and she govern pretty much the same.

  31. 7figureipo Avatar

    He’s even more dementia addled and delusional than we thought if he thinks he could have won. He was running a terrible campaign, he completely botched the debate (“We beat Medicare!” 😃) and his own internal polling showed Trump on track for a 400+ EC tally

  32. bunkscudda Avatar

    I think the left overestimated the importance of the debates. Biden failed harder than any candidate ever (even against an opponent saying people are eating dogs and cats) and looked totally spaced out in the debate, but i would guess that 95% of the people watching that already had made up their minds. The google traffic spiking for “did Joe Biden drop out of the presidential race?” on election day was staggering. This election was won by swaying low-info voters

    Theres a good chance Biden wouldve done better on the ballot. but I dont blame Kamala, the most ideal wouldve been for Biden to say he wasnt going to pursue a second term, and allow a democratic primary. There wasnt nearly time for that after the debate. the Dems had to go with Kamala. Even with the time she had it wasnt enough. a new primary that late in the game wouldve also been a losing wager.

  33. DizzyNerd Avatar

    They should have held actual primaries. Heaven forbid we let the best candidate get time to make their case.

  34. engadine_maccas1997 Avatar

    I just finished reading a new book about the 2024 election. Obama and Pelosi – two of the most talented politicians in the Democratic Party in our modern era – both didn’t want Harris to be the nominee because they were certain she’d lose. And they were right.

    Would Biden have done better? Who knows. Probably not since he didn’t have the ability to effectively communicate and campaign. It is clear his decision to run for reelection in the first place was a tragic mistake of profound consequence. But handing the nomination to Kamala Harris – one of the more untalented politicians in modern Democratic politics – was also a mistake .

  35. KeyEnvironmental9743 Avatar

    He would have lost even worse. I think he would have lost Virginia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and perhaps even Minnesota or New Mexico.

  36. MurrayInBocaRaton Avatar

    When Joe decided to run for a second term after saying he wouldn’t, and after a debate performance that he needed to nail (and decidedly didn’t), that’s the moment the Democrats were going to lose.

  37. The_Awful-Truth Avatar

    Harris ran a horrific campaign, many other Democrats could have won. But not Joe. He simply didn’t have enough gas left in the tank.

  38. Duckfoot2021 Avatar

    Not a single, solitary atom of one googleplex of snowball’s chance in hell.

    I love Joe, but he shit the bed so completely in that one debate that it was impossible for him to win.

    And for all the whining from sections of the Left, Harris was at that point beyond doubt the Democrats only hope.

  39. thatpj Avatar

    according to the times, the harris campaign never had a poll where they were leading, so i don’t think he was completely wrong in saying that. he would have lost too but at least we would have avoided the shitshow of self immolation after the debate and harris wouldn’t have failed so spectacularly on the national stage. i believe that things wouldn’t feel so dire and party so leaderless if the geniuses who said all we need was younger candidate didn’t have their way since they were hilariously wrong.

  40. madbuilder Avatar

    Absolutely he does. But he was also really old and doesn’t give the impression that he was making all the decisions. I really have nothing against this man personally. I just think he chose the wrong successor.

    Look for example at his warning that “Nordstream would end.” Then when it mysteriously blew up months later, he tried to say it was terrorists. It makes you wonder if he even knew what his CIA was doing.

  41. Riokaii Avatar

    the fact it was even a question WAS the answer to the question.

    No he does not have a point. he’s delusional, he has a savior complex

  42. Obwyn Avatar

    Biden wasn’t going to win. He probably would’ve gotten beat worse than Harris did after his performance in that debate.

    The only chance the Dems had to win was for Biden to have announced early on that he wasn’t seeking reelection and for the Dems to have a real primary. Even then it would’ve been tough given the extensive dissatisfaction with his administration.

    It’s a good bet that Harris would not have been the nominee. No one wanted her in 2020 which is why she dropped before the first primary and it’s not like she became more popular after becoming VP. Biden dropping so late screwed the Dems because Harris was the only realistic candidate because no one else could use the campaign money raised by Biden and there wasn’t enough time to start funding a new candidate from scratch while also running in the general election.

    Biden needs to just go away and stay away. Anytime he pops his senile head up it just gives Trump and the right wing media more fodder.

  43. LookAnOwl Avatar

    I thought Biden did a great job as president and was absolutely fine with him doing another term. His campaigning was a bit shaky at first, but I kind of bought into the “Oh, Trump is running again. Nobody is voting for that guy after 1/6 and his bizarre rallies” rhetoric. Then the debate happened and all the walls crashed down.

    No, there is no chance Biden would have won had he continued. If anything, Harris scraped what she could from that dying campaign and brought new life to it. I think it was probably always going to be too late, but Trump would’ve really smashed Biden and probably actually have the mandate he claims he has now.

  44. GoldburstNeo Avatar

    Agreed on his lack of surprise, huge disagree he would have won.

    As disastrous as 2024 went, Biden dropping out prevented an actual landslide from happening, he was in that bad of a position.

  45. cnewell420 Avatar

    No accountability. Time to move on.

  46. CrackHeadRodeo Avatar

    Biden was already suffering cognitive decline in the first term. Second time around he would have been too to be a competent president.

  47. SaintNutella Avatar

    I think he’s wrong.

    First, he should have never asked Harris to be his VP. She simply was not a popular candidate. And after choosing her, he certainly should not have insinuated her race or gender played a part in that decision. Regardless of the validity of that, it unfairly places a mark on Kamala and only fuels the anti-DEI rhetoric.

    Second, he should’ve prepared the VP much better. Maybe it’s just me, but I remember that the idea was that he was meant to be a transition period president – presumably to train/uplift a VP (which would make sense given that he was a VP, too). Instead, despite how obvious his age was, he insisted on running for a second term well into the summer.

    Third, even beyond COVID-19 there were things that put him at a disadvantage. Kneeling to Israel and even parroting the “40 beheaded babies” nonsense was not a good look. Someone taking a shot at Trump and missing just enough to give that hideous orange buffoon empathy points also probably didn’t help.

  48. LibraProtocol Avatar

    Dude is deluded if he thinks he could have won…

  49. The_Grizzly- Avatar

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Joe was sabotaging elections all along.

  50. goggleblock Avatar

    Despite some missteps, I have a lot of respect for Biden for his time in the WH. His team did an excellent job for the most part.

    But, as much as I denied it, he was too old for another term. I would have voted for him over Trump, but he was too old for the job.

    2024 was decided by “low information” voters. To say a Democratic primary would have made a difference is stupid – the sitting VP had the best shot with “low information” voters based on name recognition alone. The problem wasn’t the candidate or the messaging, it was THE VOTERS. Hindsight aside, there NO UNIVERSE in which Donald Trump should have been president again after his disastrous first term, Jan 6, his criminal conviction, and his joke of a campaign. It takes an ignorant and gullible voting population to think he’s the best option, and that’s exactly what we have.

    There are legitimate criticisms for the DNC and Biden and Harris, for sure, but a B- candidate should’ve beaten Trump, hands down. The multitude of morons gave DJT the victory, not “woke identity politics” or a non-primary.

  51. Idrinkbeereverywhere Avatar

    This election was 6 months ago, let’s move forward

  52. limbodog Avatar

    I’m not convinced Harris lost

  53. Certainly-Not-A-Bot Avatar

    No. Harris’s loss might have been somewhat predictable, but Biden was pretty much guaranteed to lose

  54. robinhoodoftheworld Avatar

    I actually like Joe Biden. I can even sympathize to a degree with him choosing to run again since Trump was the nominee again.

    However, he severely misread the situation. He was becoming too old to be an effective president and even if he was in top form the impacts of inflation following COVID would have still made him lose. He should have been honest with the American people and bowed out much earlier.

  55. Wiz101deathwiz Avatar

    He has a point, or at least half of one. He’s right to have expected Harris to lose. Everyone who thought Harris was a good candidate was either stupid or lying to themselves (or, more likely, both.) You don’t win an election when your only selling point is “I’m not the other guy.” But Biden would have been just as badly creamed after the horrendous performance on the debate stage.

    Democrats had many ways to increase their chances and failed at each one:

    They should have had a primary rather than nominating Kamala

    Kamala should have had an actual coherent and meaningful plan not just for the future, but how to be different than Joe Biden

    Picking Tim walz over Josh Shapiro, literally the governor of her most important swing state was a huge miss.

    Holy shit do more interviews than I can count on two hands and don’t say exactly the same thing in each interview

    I could go on. But let’s be honest, Biden is wrong: He would never have won. And, he’s also right: Kamala Harris was doomed from the start.

  56. ProbablySlacking Avatar

    No.

    Joe should have dropped out the day after becoming president. It is his fault kamala couldn’t win because he didn’t groom her to be president during her time as VP. She was hidden away on stupid shit.

    He then made it worse by anointing here rather than pushing for a brokered convention.

  57. Significant_Willow_7 Avatar

    Joe should not have been delusional enough to run at 82. Democrats should have an open, thumbs off the scale primary to pick someone the party actually wanted.

  58. Mediocretes08 Avatar

    Catholics shifted 25 points right 2020-2024 and I assure you he knows that’s in large part due to institutional sexism.

  59. violentbowels Avatar

    Absolutely not. If he hadn’t ever even attempted to start running, the Dems mightve had a chance.

  60. matttheepitaph Avatar

    I wonder how he thinks speculating on counterfactuals will fight fascism as opposed to boost his ego.

  61. TheWizard01 Avatar

    He should have dropped out earlier and the democrats had a real primary. That’s the only way they stood a chance at winning.

  62. neotericnewt Avatar

    Not that he would have won, he was doing really badly and everyone can see it but him.

    But yes, it was an awful situation. Dropping a candidate, your incumbent candidate, only a couple months before voting actually starts is obviously very, very bad. It was practically handing Trump the win. Before Biden dropped out I kept trying to explain this to people. The best possibility would have been if everyone rallied around Biden, but we couldn’t, he was too far gone.

    I’m not at all surprised that we tried to avoid dropping Biden, but yeah, no way we would have won with him in the race either. The best scenario would have been realizing that Biden couldn’t maintain earlier on, and having a serious primary. It’s really sad honestly. I think Biden was slipping, but it was way more gradually than the right were saying. He was still very clearly capable at the beginning of his administration, and very clearly not at the end. He should have been convinced not to run, but I’m sure people tried. He’s a stubborn old mule.

  63. jailtheorange1 Avatar

    Joe doesn’t need to come out at this stage saying this bullshit.

  64. seattleseahawks2014 Avatar

    I feel like he probably would’ve lost even more so than her.

  65. theonejanitor Avatar

    hot take: no one would have beaten trump in that election. people vote based on vibes, and the vibes (regardless of how misinformed they are) were that life sucked during covid and the democrats were in power during covid.

  66. nernst79 Avatar

    No. This is just people pandering to his ego. He would have lost by even more.

  67. HomelessIrishIntern Avatar

    He has shown himself to be an ego maniac completely incapable of self reflection. Trump was on track to win 400 electoral votes before Biden dropped out.

    He should regret the fact that he didn’t drop out sooner and allow the party to run primaries. I don’t know who would have won but even if it was Kamala at leat she would have been battle tested/the dems would have got the opportunity to test policies on the public.

    Instead the Biden campaign thwarted any threat of a primary challenge, they moved around the schedule to favour Biden all while trying to make the argument that Trump is dangerous for democracy. That pitch was made more difficult when party officials were changing the rules to protect an octogenarian

  68. LordWeaselton Avatar

    No and anyone who still thinks this is dead weight on the party. His own internal polling had him losing New York