Hillary Clinton delivered her sharpest rebuke yet of Joe Biden's decision to seek another term, saying the former president's choice to run in 2024 amounted to a catastrophic miscalculation that handed the election to Donald Trump and damaged his own legacy.
Speaking Monday at the 92nd Street Y in an interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker, Clinton did not mince words when asked directly about Biden's campaign. "He made a terrible mistake. He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy and for the country," she said.
Clinton's comments represented her most forceful public criticism of the president since he abandoned his reelection bid following a debate performance so poor it triggered an immediate party revolt. She argued that had Biden stuck to his original plan to serve only one term and declared he would "pass the torch to the next generation," Democrats would have entered the general election with a genuine competitive advantage.
"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," Clinton said. She characterized Biden's decision as "a terrible miscalculation."
The remarks arrived as Democrats continue assessing what went wrong after Kamala Harris lost the general election to Trump despite months of party momentum following Biden's withdrawal. Clinton acknowledged Harris faced nearly impossible odds as the sitting vice president attempting to distance herself from an unpopular sitting president, calling that political position "really hard."
When asked whether Harris could have won with more campaign time, Clinton said yes. "I think that was definitely a factor," she stated, though she identified other obstacles Harris encountered as the nominee.
The White House pushed back swiftly. Spokesperson Davis Ingle dismissed Clinton's critique, calling her "a whiny loser who no one wants to hear from." A Biden spokesperson declined further comment.
Clinton also addressed why prominent Democrats failed to publicly object to Biden's reelection plans before the debate debacle forced the issue. She suggested private conversations were occurring but that "there was no way to convince him by going public." The debate performance raised immediate questions about Biden's mental fitness and age, prompting a cascade of public calls from Democratic leaders urging him to exit the race.
Recent revelations added another layer to the controversy. Jill Biden disclosed this spring that she believed her husband was having a stroke during that debate performance and said she had never witnessed him in such condition before or since. She had publicly praised his debate showing as "great" at the time.
Clinton's current stance contrasts with her position just two years earlier. In 2022, when asked on a panel whether she would endorse Biden if he ran again, Clinton said she "would endorse our sitting president" and dismissed the question as "silly." She emphasized electability, noting that Biden had "beat, in a huge landslide victory in the popular vote, Donald Trump."
Both Clinton and Biden ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 2008, when Barack Obama ultimately secured the nomination and selected Biden as his running mate. Clinton served as Obama's Secretary of State during his first term.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Clinton's reversal on Biden exposes what everyone already knew: Democrats were too timid to challenge an aging incumbent when it mattered most, and it cost them the presidency."
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