ATLANTA (AP) — Joe Biden says he didn’t know he had cancer when he was president and would not have run for a second term if he had already been diagnosed.
The former Democratic president’s comments came in an interview with People magazine ahead of Tuesday’s release of his White House memoir.
“If I had known that I felt bad because I had cancer,” said Biden, who turns 84 on Nov. 20, “I would not have moved forward” with a 2024 re-election bid that ended after a disastrous debate against Republican Donald Trump.
Biden was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer months after leaving office in 2025.
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“I don’t think an 80-year-old with cancer should run” for president, Biden said in the interview.
He nonetheless argued that the June 2024 debate, less than five months before Election Day, was not a seismic event even though it accelerated Democrats’ concerns about his age — he was 81 at the time — and his ability to defeat Trump.
“First of all, I thought there would be another debate, but there wasn’t,” Biden said. “But even though there was no further debate, it didn’t bother me because it had no consequences.”
Within weeks, Biden announced he was ending his campaign and supporting his running mate, Kamala Harris, who secured the nomination and lost to Trump in the general election.
Biden insisted he was able to carry out his duties while in office. He said age itself was not disqualifying and meant he had experience and deep personal relationships with world leaders.
“I believe that, objectively, I was the best equipped person to do this job,” he said.
His son Hunter told the BBC in August that the cancer had spread and was causing his father pain. “It’s very painful and very debilitating in many ways,” he said.
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Since Joe Biden left office, his son has become a more high-profile public presence, feuding with Republicans on social media, publishing lengthy musings on the direction of the nation and launching his own cryptocurrency.
Joe Biden defended his son’s public persona and his decision to pardon Hunter Biden following the younger Biden’s 2024 conviction on federal gun-related charges and his guilty plea to federal tax charges. Hunter Biden has also faced years of scrutiny and scathing Republican attacks over his international business dealings.
Hunter Biden said the pardon damaged his father’s legacy, but the former president said Trump’s penchant for revenge made it necessary.
“He attacks people without any basis, even if they are considered enemies. I knew what he would do,” Joe Biden said. “If I hadn’t forgiven – not just some of my family members, everyone who had anything to do with me – he would come back and try to hurt them.”
Biden called his son “one of the most brilliant men I know,” adding, “I’m really proud of him.”
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