Biden tells ‘The View’ why he ‘wasn’t surprised’ Harris lost to Trump

Former President Joe Biden explained on “The View” Thursday why he “wasn’t surprised” by former Vice President Kamala Harris losing to President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

Trump trounced Harris in November, winning all seven battleground states and the national popular vote. Co-host Sara Haines asked Biden “why” he thought Harris lost and whether he was “surprised” by the election result.

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“I wasn’t surprised, not because I didn’t think the vice president was the most qualified person to be president. She is. She’s qualified to be president of the United States of America … I wasn’t surprised because they went the route of the sexist route, the whole route,” Biden said. “I mean, this is a woman, she’s this, she’s that. I mean, it really — I’ve never seen quite as successful and consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t lead the country, and a woman of mixed race.”

“In addition to that, one of the things happened … think about it, liberal democracies all across, all across the world, lost last time out … I think we underestimate the phenomenal negative impact that COVID had and the pandemic had on people, on attitudes, on optimism, on a whole range of things,” he continued. “So I was very disappointed, but I wasn’t surprised. The only thing that surprised me is the excess to which they’ve gone in some of the attacks they’ve made.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries dodged when he was asked on Thursday about Biden’s statement that he was not “surprised” by the election results on “The View.” “Were you surprised and looking ahead to ’28, do you think Kamala Harris is the best person for Democrats to put up?” a reporter asked in footage recorded by the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We’re going to win control of the House of Representatives in 2026 and lay the foundation for us to be successful in 2028,” Jeffries said.

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Harris asserted during an October interview on “The View” that she would not have done anything differently than Biden, drawing significant backlash.

When Harris ran for president in 2020, she only secured 844 votes in the Democratic primary, obtaining zero delegates in the process, according to archived election data.

The former vice president will decide whether to run for the California governorship by the end of the summer, she told a pre-Oscars party attendee, according to two individuals with knowledge of the discussion, Politico reported.

Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.

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