3 min readJun 17, 2026 09:26 PM IST
First published on: Jun 17, 2026 at 08:51 PM IST
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said President Joe Biden made a “terrible mistake” by seeking a second term in 2024, arguing that his decision left Democrats in a difficult position and ultimately contributed to Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Speaking at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, the 2016 Democratic nominee argued he had reneged on an earlier commitment to step aside, calling that broken promise catastrophic, The Guardian reported.
Hillary said, “He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy, and for the country.”
She described his decision to stay in the race as a terrible miscalculation and said once Biden refused to step aside and held on for as long as he did, it left the party in a deeply difficult position.
Hillary added, “Once [Biden] didn’t move and did not, you know, admit that he had said he was going to step aside, and then decided not to, and held on for as long as he did, we were in a terrible dilemma.”
Why Clinton believes Democrats lost
Biden withdrew from the race in July 2024 following a widely criticised debate performance against Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris subsequently became the Democratic nominee but lost the general election.
His wife, Jill Biden, later revealed that while watching the debate, she feared he might be suffering a stroke.
Was Biden the only factor?
Still, Clinton’s assertion that any Democrat would have defeated Trump warrants closer scrutiny, the report added.
A 2025 report by the left-leaning group Way to Win identified three broader factors behind the Democrats’ defeat: widespread voter demand for economic change, a structural media advantage enjoyed by Republicans, and a disconnect between progressive positions on issues such as Gaza, racial justice, and immigration and the views of much of the electorate.
Hillary was one of Biden’s most prominent Democratic allies and had largely avoided publicly criticising his decision to run again.
It also references a belated and controversial internal Democratic Party review, which found that the party had been steadily losing ground at every level of government for nearly two decades, suggesting that Biden’s candidacy was just one factor among several deeper structural issues, not necessarily the decisive one.
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Biden defeated Trump in 2020 and became the 46th president of the United States. He launched a re-election bid in 2023 before withdrawing from the race in July 2024.
(Written by Paramita Datta, who is an intern with The Indian Express)
Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a taping of an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour at The 92nd Street Y on Monday, June 15, 2026, in New York. (AP photo)
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