Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said former President Joe Biden made a "terrible mistake" by seeking a second term in 2024, becoming one of the most prominent Democrats to publicly criticize the decision that ultimately reshaped the party's presidential campaign.
In a conversation with The New Yorker's David Remnick reported by The Hill, Clinton argued that Biden should have announced in 2023 that he would not seek reelection and instead allowed a competitive Democratic primary to determine the party's next nominee.
"He made a terrible mistake. He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy, and for the country," Clinton said. "I believe if he had kept to that plan and said in, say, the late summer of '23 that he wasn't going to run, that he was going to pass the torch to the next generation, we would have had a real contest."
Clinton added that she believes the eventual Democratic nominee, whether Vice President Kamala Harris, a governor or a senator, would have defeated President Donald Trump. "I think it was a terrible miscalculation on the part of President Biden," she said.
Hillary Clinton said former President Joe Biden made a “terrible mistake” by running for reelection in 2024, arguing another Democratic nominee would have defeated President Trump had the party held a competitive primary.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 16, 2026
“He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy and… pic.twitter.com/6yakfsCMfv
Her comments add to a debate that has continued inside the Democratic Party since Biden's withdrawal from the race following his widely criticized debate performance against Trump in June 2024. Harris ultimately became the Democratic nominee but lost the election.
In excerpts from her memoir "107 Days" published last year Harris also questioned Biden's decision to run again. Reflecting on repeated assurances inside the White House that the decision belonged to Biden and former first lady Jill Biden, Harris wrote: "was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness."
"The stakes were simply too high," Harris added. "This wasn't a choice that should have been left to an individual's ego, an individual's ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision."
At the same time, Harris defended Biden's ability to serve as president, writing that he remained "a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction" and arguing that, despite visible signs of aging, he was capable of performing the duties of office.
Jill Biden recently offered her own perspective during an interview with NBC News while promoting her memoir. Recalling the aftermath of Biden's performance during the one and only debate with Trump in 2024, she said she was "scared to death" watching the event and later acknowledged she worried something might be medically wrong.
Still, she defended her public support for her husband. "I'm his wife. I've got to lift him up," she said, adding that while Biden had slowed down with age, she believed he remained capable of doing the job.
