Key facts
- Biden said he would not have gone forward with a 2024 re-election bid had he known he had cancer.
- Biden said he does not think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running for president.
- Biden said the June 2024 debate was not consequential and he had expected another debate.
- Biden defended his pardon of his son Hunter Biden, saying Trump would have pursued those around him.
Joe Biden said he did not know he had cancer while he was US president and would not have sought a second term had he already been diagnosed. The former Democratic president's comments came in an interview with People magazine before the release of his White House memoir on Tuesday.
"If I had known that I was feeling lousy because I had cancer," said Biden, who turns 84 on November 20, "I would've not gone forward" with a 2024 re-election bid that ended after a debate performance against Republican Donald Trump. Biden was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer months after leaving office in 2025.
"I don't think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running" for president, Biden said. He argued the June 2024 debate, less than five months before Election Day, was not a seismic event even if it accelerated Democrats' concerns about his age, then 81, and his ability to defeat Trump. "First of all, I thought there'd be another debate, which there wasn't," he said. "But notwithstanding the fact that there wasn't another debate, it didn't disturb me because it wasn't consequential."
Within weeks, Biden announced he was ending his campaign and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, who secured the nomination and lost to Trump in the general election. Biden insisted he was able to perform his duties while in office and said age itself was not disqualifying. "I believe that on an objective basis, I was the best-equipped person to do the 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 it's very debilitating in many respects," he said. Since leaving office, the younger Biden has launched his own cryptocurrency and become a more prominent public presence.
Joe Biden defended his decision to pardon his son after Hunter Biden's 2024 conviction on federal felony gun charges and his guilty plea to federal tax charges. Hunter Biden has said the pardon damaged his father's legacy, but the former president said Trump's penchant for vengeance made it necessary. "If I hadn't pardoned, not just some of my family members, anyone who's dealt with me, he would go back and try to do harm to them," Joe Biden said.