Former First Lady Jill Biden said Tuesday that she believes her husband, former President Joe Biden, would have defeated Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election had he remained the Democratic nominee.

Appearing for an interview on MS NOW’s Morning Joe to promote her forthcoming memoir, View from the West Wing, Jill Biden was asked by co-host Willie Geist about Democratic criticism that Biden missed an opportunity to leave office after the party’s stronger-than-expected performance in the 2022 midterms.

She acknowledged there were discussions about whether the president should seek a second term, but said Democratic support remained firmly behind him heading into the 2024 campaign.

She said: “I mean, Joe had to decide whether to run again. But like you said, you know, we did well, the Democrats did well in the midterms, and in 2023, the Democratic Party was totally behind Joe, and people, everywhere I went, ‘Joe’s got to do it again! He’s got to run! He’s got to run!’”

“And he was like, ‘Well, I don’t know’ – you know – ‘Am I too old?’ I mean, it was the age question no matter where we went,” she continued.

“And so, of course, you know, we heard that, what people were saying, but then people were doing polling, you know, who could beat Trump? And the only person who polled that could beat Trump was Joe Biden. And so that’s why Joe decided to continue on,” she added.

“Do you or does the president now regret dropping out of the race?” Geist asked.

“You know, I would never want anyone I loved to go through that again,” she replied. “And it was so painful, not just for us, not just for me and for Joe, but we have children and grandchildren. And to see them have to go through that was really a hard thing, a hard time for our family, and I would never want to put our family through that again,” Jill Biden replied.

“But does he believe to this day that he would’ve defeated Donald Trump in that election?” Geist pressed.

“I believe he would have beat Donald Trump in that election,” Jill Biden said.

The remarks come as Biden continues a media tour that has renewed attention on the turbulent final months of her husband’s 2024 campaign. In recent interviews, she has also recalled fearing the president was suffering a “stroke” during his disastrous June 2024 debate against Trump.

That debate intensified concerns among Democrats about Biden’s age and fitness for office, sparking calls for him to step aside. Less than a month later, he ended his re-election campaign and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who went on to lose the election to Trump in November.

Watch above via MS NOW.

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