Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Former President Joe Biden would not have run for reelection in 2024 if he had known about his cancer, he said in an interview released Wednesday in which he also sought to downplay the historic debate performance that helped end his political career.<\/p>\n
“If I had known that I was feeling lousy because I had cancer, I would have not gone forward because I don’t think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running,” he said in the interview with People magazine<\/a>, which was conducted last week following Democrats\u2019 big midterm wins and ahead of his upcoming memoir\u2019s release.<\/p>\n The former president announced his diagnosis<\/a> \u2014 Stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer \u2014 in May 2025, just four months after leaving the White House. It triggered an outpouring of public support \u2014 but it also raised questions about how doctors failed to catch the cancer earlier and whether it might have contributed to Biden\u2019s apparent decline toward the end of his term.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very sad, actually. I\u2019m surprised that it wasn\u2019t, you know, the public wasn\u2019t notified a long time ago because to get to [a Gleason score of] 9, that\u2019s a long time,\u201d President Donald Trump told reporters shortly after Biden\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n Prior to his diagnosis, Biden hadn\u2019t been screened for prostate cancer since 2014<\/a>. U.S. guidelines have long recommended that men shouldn’t be screened for the cancer once they hit their 70s.<\/p>\n Biden also downplayed his poor June 2024 debate performance against Trump that contributed to his exit from the Democratic ticket a month later.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, it was not very consequential,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst of all, I thought there would be another debate, which there wasn\u2019t. But notwithstanding the fact that there wasn\u2019t another debate, it didn\u2019t disturb me because it wasn\u2019t consequential.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s son, Hunter, has said he believes the cancer was responsible<\/a> for the performance. His weak showing on the debate stage led to mounting calls within his party for him to withdraw, an effort eventually backed by longtime friends and allies such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi<\/a>.<\/p>\n The former president\u2019s memoir<\/a>, \u201cPromise Me, America,\u201d will go on sale next week. Biden wrote Sunday on X<\/a> that the cancer meant he \u201cwon\u2019t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I\u2019d hoped.\u201d But he still feels sharp, he told the magazine.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying I\u2019ll live forever, but the point is that, you know, I have all my faculties, I have access to all the things I had before and, you know, I feel good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n