Blaming the US President’s incumbent status for Vice President Kamala Harris’ electoral defeat, the White House has said that Joe Biden felt it was the “correct” decision he made to not run for the presidential race.
“The President is very proud of what he was able to accomplish,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a White House briefing on Thursday — the first since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory was declared.
“He was very proud, and when he made that decision to hand over the torch, pass the torch to the Vice President, he believed it was the right decision to make at that time,” she said.
“He (Biden) believed that she (Kamala Harris) was ready.”
Jean-Pierre’s answers were ambiguously phrased, either speaking in the past tense or alluding to Biden’s feelings in July, when he made his decision, rather than how he feels at the moment.
She did not directly answer whether Biden regrets not dropping from the US presidential race sooner than he did.
Jean-Pierre sought to herald Biden’s accomplishments during his term as President, while subtly blaming his and Harris’ status as incumbents for Democrats’ loss.
“Despite all of the accomplishments that we were able to get done, there were global headwinds, that, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, obviously, Covid-19 led to disruptions with the supply chain, and it had a political toll on many incumbents.”