Former President Joe Biden is drawing criticism after describing his poor performance in the 2024 debate with President Donald Trump as “not very consequential.” He left the presidential race just 24 days after the debate.
Asked in a People magazine interview released Wednesday how he now viewed the June 27 debate, Biden said he had expected another debate to take place.
“I don’t know anybody who hasn’t made a mistake in a debate,” he said, adding that he had not considered his performance consequential. The fact that there was no second debate, he said, did not change that view.
His comments quickly prompted criticism on social media. Former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes pointed out that Biden ended his campaign less than a month after the debate. Conservative commentator Steve Guest called Biden “totally delusional.”
Matt Whitlock, a former senior adviser to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called the debate perhaps the most consequential in presidential history, arguing that Biden might have remained the Democratic nominee otherwise. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also mocked Biden’s assessment, calling it the most lopsided debate in history.
During the debate, Biden stumbled over his words, paused for extended periods and appeared confused at times.
Biden ended his campaign on July 21, 2024, following growing pressure from fellow Democrats to step aside. In a CBS News Sunday Morning interview clip released in May 2026, former first lady Jill Biden said she had thought her husband was having a stroke during the debate.
Biden also said Sunday that his cancer treatment would lead him to reduce public appearances promoting his upcoming memoir, “Promise Me, America,” scheduled for release November 17.
In a social media post, he said the book would cover his presidency, the challenges his administration faced and the decisions he made. Biden added that he was diagnosed with cancer while writing it. His doctors, he said, were encouraged by his response to treatment, though some days were harder than others.
