Hillary Clinton says Biden's re-election bid cost Democrats the 2024 election

[ForgoTheConsequence]

Source: The Guardian

Joe Biden’s decision to seek a second term was “a terrible mistake” that cost Democrats the presidency and may have permanently damaged his legacy, Hillary Clinton has declared.

Speaking at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan on Monday, the former US secretary of state and 2016 Democratic nominee said Biden had reneged on a prior commitment to step aside – and that the betrayal of that promise proved catastrophic. “He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy, and for the country,” she said.

Clinton argued that had Biden announced in late summer 2023 that he would not run, a genuine Democratic primary would have produced a stronger nominee.

“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,” she said, calling the decision to stay in the race “a terrible miscalculation”.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lhQp47IdK0w

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/16/hillary-clinton-joe-biden-2024-election

[calguy]

1. She's not wrong

[68er]

2. He should've announced he wasn't running again, right after the (fairly) successful midterms...

The political buzz would've kept more of the wind-up doll media spotlight away from Tr*mp during that period, too...

[Bluetus]

20. I very openly advocated that he should be running in 2020 expplicitly as a one-term President.

There were already concerns about his age. Announcing in 2020 that he intended to come in and spend 4 years using everything he had learned during his career to get the country back on track following the disastrous Trump first term (rampnt graft, selling out to our enemies, COVID, 2 impeachments, etc.) and NOT run for a second term. That would have been seen as the capstone of a long career of public service.

He could have even taken it one step further and committed to convening ann the living Presidents (except Trump) regularly as were were putting the country back together.

This kind of posture could have given him a much broader mandate to make needed changes like reforming the Spureme Court. because he honestly could say it had nothing to do with any of his political ambitions.

[68er]

21. Agreed. He would not have had to keep any "powder dry" for a second term, in that case...

... and could've been much more unfettered in protecting the democracy we've now lost.

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

29. I had strongly hoped when I voted for him ...

... he would commit to a single term and spend much of that term trying to codify into law all the norms and traditions that Trump showed to be ignorable and toothless in his first term. Setting strong boundaries on the power of the president that Trump so flagrantly abused and enlarged.

I was saddened when he did neither.

I would still have voted for him in 2024 if he had stayed on the ballot and I did vote for Harris.

But the lack of new laws has allowed Trump to go much further in his second term. Not that he does not regularly flout the existing laws.

[JBTaurus83]

3. She's definitely correct

I’m sure there will be people pointing that out about her as well. Democrats as voters seem to be pretty “one and done” with our candidates if they don’t succeed in a race like the Presidential race.

[littlemissmartypants]

4. To embed a YT Short video on DU...

Replace: shorts/

With: watch?v=

And voila...

[ForgoTheConsequence]

6. Thanks! Noted for next time.

[littlemissmartypants]

7. 👍❤️

[Callie1979]

5. File in the "no shit" file. He said in '20 he'd likely NOT run for a 2nd term.

We shouldve had a primary.
Once again Hillary is right.

[bromeando]

8. Hillary

She's right. Biden and others want to stay in power too long.

[Bayard]

24. I don't think it had anything to do with power

I have never doubted that Pres. Biden was always trying to do the right thing for this country.

[LymphocyteLover]

9. Biden never promised that or committed to that. There's no reason to bring all this crap up.

[delisen]

11. Clinton was asked a question in Interview. She answered it.

She pulled no punches and also did the same on Trump, Iran, Netanyahu, and Clarence Thomas.

It was refreshing to hear a politician speak her mind. The interview is long. Found it on you tune. David Remnick interviewed at 97NY on June 15, 2026, yesterday.

I found it illuminating.

[Bluetus]

22. And people are sick of politicians being evasive and too "coached"

We are hearing plain talk from people like AOC, Mamdani, Newsom, Pritzker, Platner, and now Ossoff and Talarico. I welcome Hillary adding to that with her voice.

Democrats finding a voice after a couple of generations of constant equivocation. Americans hate that. They want to follow people who speak with some clarity and conviction, not just platitutudes and slogans.

[LymphocyteLover]

33. She could've answered that without dumping so harshly on Joe Biden, a totally decent man and good president

[Akakoji]

12. Yes. He did.

Look it up.

[LymphocyteLover]

32. "So did Biden promise or pledge or signal that he would be a one-term president? No, not explicitly."

Some one-term truthers also cite a March 2020 speech in which Biden called himself a “bridge” to a new generation of Democratic leaders. Here’s what he said specifically: “Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”

So did Biden promise or pledge or signal that he would be a one-term president? No, not explicitly. A bridge can be short, like the world’s shortest international bridge, or long, like … various other bridges. As I said Tuesday, it’s really most appropriate to say that the president “floated” serving one term before backing away from the idea.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/06/biden-president-trump-rematch-one-term-promise-nate-silver.html

[Akakoji]

10. Stating the obvious

Guess he was lying when he said that he would only be a one term President. He should have just let it go.

[Polybius]

14. Well, technically he was

[Akakoji]

26. What's the difference between technically lying and lying?

What?

[Polybius]

31. I meant technically he was a one term President

[msfiddlestix]

13. She's not wrong but it's still a little bit weird that she's made a statement like that in public All Things Considered,

Throwing rocks and glass windows and all that

[Polybius]

15. She was interviewed, and someone asked if it was a mistake that he ran again (initially)

I appreciated her honest answer.

[msfiddlestix]

18. 👍

[Prairie Gates]

16. I absolutely assumed, when I voted for Biden in 2020, that he would serve a placeholder role

It's truly a lesson in "My precious." People can't let go of it.

[Martin68]

17. I agree with Clinton. Biden was losing stamina and credibility, but his staff held on too long.

[Akakoji]

28. If Trump weren't stealing so much money for the family syndicate from our tax dollars

The GOP would have thrown him off Trump Tower. Ever heard of Peter Thiel?

[johnnyplankton]

19. Sadly, he undid what should have been a brilliant legacy. He could have been among the best one-termers, instead...

[sprinkleeninow]

23. Sadly, I arrived at the same conclusion.

[usonian]

25. Pardon me. I love them both but

If neither one, even for good medical reason, is going to stand up loudly against the Trump Putsch, then let them work things out very, very privately.

They are party past. We can't win with revisionist history.

HOW WE WIN.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=420478
☝️ ☝️☝️ ☝️☝️ ☝️

The revolutionary Democratic party WILL WIN. The old party just walked away from the battle in 2024, when we needed them the most.

This party.

[Demobrat]

27. So it's okay to say it now?

[dadzilla]

30. But would it have been better?

I'll just say it, she;'s as sharp a mind as you could expect from a blue dog dem. That said, what could we really expected of her term in office. Did she have the ovaries to tell APIC to sit down? Was she astute enough to push back on the tech bros? It's easy to look back and lay out a fantasy of what could have been.

Would it have been better than tRump, clearly. But I wouldn't say it would be a progressive dream either.

[Scruffy1]

34. Did you mean AIPAC? nt.

[Katinfl]

35. She is probably right. But we still had a good candidate in Kamala.

The fact remains that people did not realize how much Biden had accomplished to get us through Covid, get the economy back on track and all the other good things he did. They fell for trumps BS, did not remember his first term or chose to forget it, would not vote for a black woman, chose to sit this one out, etc…….whatever the reason, we are where we are because voters simply chose to take the easy way out. Whether Biden stayed in or not, the outcome would have probably been the same. We had a great candidate who stepped up to the plate on short notice, did a fantastic job and still lost to an idiot.

The choice could not have been clearer and yet this is what we got. What does that say about this country?