Biden 'wasn't surprised' by Kamala Harris' loss to Trump in 2024 election, implies he would've beaten him

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Former President Joe Biden sat down Thursday, May 8, for his second TV interview since leaving the White House. Speaking on ABC’s 'The View', the 82-year-old admitted he “wasn’t surprised” that Donald Trump steamrolled Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

But it’s not because he doubted her chops. “I wasn’t surprised, not because I didn’t think the vice president wasn’t the most qualified person to be president. She is,” Biden said during the sometimes halting, sometimes awkward appearance. 

But the ex-POTUS appeared to imply that if he had stayed in the race, the results would’ve looked very different. “A lot of people didn’t show up,” he said of the voter turnout, before noting that Trump still got “seven million fewer votes” than he did in 2020, the New York Post reported.

Joe Biden weighs in on Kamala Harris' loss to Donald Trump

When Joy Behar asked why Donald Trump can’t stop obsessing over him and blaming him for his administration’s flaws, Joe Biden replied, “I beat him.”

But Trump made quite the comeback in 2024 — flipping Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia — the very same states he lost to Biden in 2020. That sweep handed Trump all seven key swing-state Electoral College wins and even the popular vote, a feat no GOP candidate had pulled off since George W Bush in 2004.

And yet, Harris didn’t seem too pressed, at least not back in October. 'The View' co-host Sunny Hostin reminded Biden that the former vice president once said on their show she wouldn’t have changed "a thing” about how he handled his term.

“I did not advise her to say that,” he said bluntly, before adding, “I think she was talking about — she wouldn’t have changed the successes we had … as opposed to that we wouldn’t change anything at all.”

“She has to be her own person — and she was. We’d argue like hell by the way,” Biden shared. 

After the dust settled, even Harris' own team had to admit their internal numbers never showed her leading Trump. A post-election poll from the Democratic group Blueprint pinned her downfall on inflation, border chaos, and her heavy focus on “cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.”

But Biden ignored all the messy poll data and instead zeroed in on what he saw as a nasty, targeted campaign against her gender and background.

“I wasn’t surprised because they went the route of a, the sexist route, whole route, this is a woman, she’s this, she’s that,” he said. “I’ve never seen quite, uh, as successful and consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t lead the country — and a woman of mixed race.” He added, “They played that … fairly well,” before trailing off.

Joe Biden offers thoughts on Kamala Harris' political future

Despite the blowout loss, Joe Biden said he was “very disappointed” but not just about the race. “Liberal democracies all across America, all across the world lost last time,” he said, blaming the broader wave of disillusionment on the pandemic.

“I think we underestimate the phenomenal negative impact that COVID had and the pandemic had on people, on attitudes, on optimism, on a whole range of things,” he insisted.

Still, he hasn’t ghosted Harris. Biden revealed he “talks to” Harris “frequently" and had even shared his opinion on something just “yesterday.”

When asked if the rumors about her running for California governor were true, Biden played it coy. “She’s got a difficult decision to make about what she’s going to do,” he said.

“I hope she stays fully engaged. I think she’s first-rate. But we have a lot of really good candidates as well,” Biden added. 

You can watch the full broadcast here: