WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he may have skipped mounting a 2024 re-election bid if he were not facing Donald Trump because the Republican poses a unique threat to the United States.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden said at a fundraising event for his 2024 campaign outside of Boston. “We cannot let him win.”
Biden’s striking self-assessment comes as even staunch Democratic voters express concerns about the President’s age.
The Democrat turned 81 last month and is already the eldest Oval Office occupant in history.
“Somebody gave him a talking point they thought would sound good,” Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021, said at a Fox News town hall on Tuesday.
Biden, seeking a second four-year term in next year’s election, later told reporters at the White House that he would not drop out of the race.
“No, not now,” Biden said when asked if he would consider stepping aside if Trump, 77, stopped seeking his own second term. “Look, he is running, and I have to run.” Asked if he would have run were Trump not in the race, Biden said, “I expect so.”