On ABC’s “The View,” the former president dismissed reports that he had declined while in office and said he had not been surprised that Kamala Harris lost the election, citing the role of sexism.
Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. defended his mental acuity during an interview on Thursday and blamed sexism, the coronavirus pandemic and his struggle to provide Americans with short-term results for President Trump’s return to power.
Mr. Biden’s interview on ABC’s “The View” was his first on American television since his presidential term ended in January. His public re-emergence — he also sat for a BBC interview that aired Wednesday — comes before the imminent release of books expected to be critical of his sharpness and his ability to have sought re-election last year.
“They are wrong,” Mr. Biden said of reports that he had declined in his final year in office. “There’s nothing to sustain that.” He later added: “The only reason I got out of the race is because I didn’t want to have a divided Democratic Party.”
Mr. Biden said that while Democratic leaders and donors wanted him to drop out after his poor debate performance in June, the party’s rank and file did not — an assertion that runs counter to polling both before and after the debate.
“The Democratic Party at large didn’t buy into it,” he said of the push for him to quit the race. “But the Democratic leadership and some of the very significant contributors did.”
As Mr. Biden sits for interviews, his party is not exactly longing for his presence as it tries to fight Mr. Trump’s attempts to dismantle large parts of the federal government and the international alliances of which Mr. Biden remains proud. A host of ambitious Democrats vying for influence ahead of the 2028 presidential primary race have been discussing ways to cast the party in a new light.