Hillary Clinton Turns on Joe Biden

Hillary Clinton is now saying what plenty of Democrats refused to admit in public during the 2024 election: Joe Biden’s decision to run again was a disaster.

The former first lady and failed 2016 presidential candidate delivered one of her sharpest public rebukes yet of Biden, blasting his re-election bid as a “terrible mistake” that damaged his legacy, hurt the country, and helped clear the way for Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Clinton, 78, said Biden, now 83, should have followed through on the idea many Democrats once quietly floated: serve one term, step aside, and let a younger generation fight the next battle.

Instead, Biden insisted on running again, even as concerns about his age, stamina, and ability to handle another brutal campaign were already dominating the national conversation.

Speaking with New Yorker editor David Remnick, Clinton did not sugarcoat her view of the decision.

Asked whether Biden made a “terrible mistake” by running for re-election in 2024, Clinton replied, “He made a terrible mistake. He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy and for the country.”

It was a stunning admission from one of the most powerful figures in Democratic politics, and it cuts directly against the party’s long public defense of Biden during the campaign.

Biden’s 2024 run came crashing down after his disastrous debate performance against Trump, which sparked panic inside the Democratic Party and raised even more questions about whether party leaders had been honest with voters about his condition.

After weeks of pressure, Biden eventually dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. But by then, Democrats were left scrambling with limited time to build a full campaign against Trump.

Harris ultimately failed to stop Trump’s political comeback.

Clinton now believes that if Biden had stepped aside earlier, Democrats could have held a real primary and possibly nominated a stronger candidate.

“We would have had a real contest,” Clinton said, arguing that a governor, senator, Harris, or another Democrat could have emerged from the process and beaten Trump.

“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 added, “So I think it was a terrible miscalculation on the part of President Biden.”

The comments are especially striking because many high-profile Democrats spent months defending Biden’s decision to run, even as polls showed voters were deeply concerned about his age.

Those concerns exploded after the debate, where Biden struggled onstage and appeared visibly diminished.

Former First Lady Jill Biden, who publicly praised her husband’s performance at the time, has since admitted she was so alarmed during the debate that she thought he might have been having a stroke. She later said she had not seen him like that “before or since.”

Clinton was also asked why more Democratic leaders did not speak out sooner about Biden’s decision to stay in the race.

According to Clinton, concerns were being discussed privately, but she did not believe going public would have changed Biden’s mind.

“There was no way to convince him by going public,” Clinton said.

Her remarks paint a picture of a Democratic Party trapped by Biden’s determination to remain on the ticket, even as warning signs piled up and Trump gained momentum.

Clinton also acknowledged that Harris faced an almost impossible political challenge once Biden stepped aside.

She said the shortened campaign timeline “was definitely a factor” in Harris’ loss, but added that Harris also had to run while trying to separate herself from the deeply unpopular administration she served in.

“I think she also found herself really in a difficult position trying to run as the sitting vice president but separate herself from the sitting president,” Clinton said. “That’s really hard.”

Jill Biden has written in her new book, View from the East Wing, that the idea of Joe Biden serving only one term had been discussed during the 2020 campaign.

According to Jill, Biden had privately floated the idea of being a transitional president. But when the time came to decide on 2024, she said his senior advisers pushed him to run again and argued he was still the Democrats’ best chance.

She also wrote that while there was “buzz” around other possible Democratic candidates, Biden’s team believed polling showed he was the strongest option.

“While the age question was there, Joe kept showing that he was still able to do the job,” Jill wrote.

But voters clearly had doubts. Even before the debate meltdown, polls showed a majority of Americans were worried about Biden’s age if he won a second term.

After the debate, those concerns became impossible for Democrats to contain.

Despite everything, both Joe and Jill Biden have continued to claim he would have beaten Trump if he had stayed in the race.

Clinton’s comments suggest she does not buy that argument.

Instead, her blunt assessment adds to the growing post-election finger-pointing inside the Democratic Party, where Biden’s decision to run again is increasingly being viewed as one of the biggest political miscalculations in modern presidential history.