Biden: I Would Have Beaten 'Loser' Trump

President Biden praised his preferred successor and called his predecessor a "loser" on ABC's The View on Wednesday. In the half-hour interview, he said he was "at peace" with his decision to step aside. "Look, when I ran for this last term, I said I saw myself as a transition president," he said, per ABC News. "But what happened was we were having so much success in getting things done that people felt we couldn't get done, I found myself having used more time than I would've ordinarily to, you know, pass that torch."

• On Kamala Harris. Biden praised Vice President Kamala Harris as "smart as hell." "She's tough, she's honorable, and the thing I like about her, and one thing to share in common, is that we have an optimistic view in the future," he said. Biden said his advice for her to win the election was to "be herself." "She has the energy, she has the intelligence, she has the grit, she has the stamina, and she has the guts to do the right thing," he said.

• On Donald Trump. Biden told the five co-hosts that Trump has no "social redeeming value" and "does not believe in democracy." Asked if he would have beaten the Republican if he had stayed in the race, Biden said, "Yes. I was confident I would beat Trump. He's a loser," the New York Times reports.
• More on leaving the race. Asked if his "hand was forced" by other Democrats in the decision to drop out of the race, Biden said he "never fully believed the assertions that somehow there was this overwhelming reluctance with my running again." He said his relationship with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was "fine." Co-host Whoopi Goldberg said she "didn't like the way they did it," EW reports. "I'm just going to say it out loud because nobody says it out loud," she said. "I didn't like the way it was done publicly, I thought they could've done this in a different way."
• His appearance was a first, and a 10th. Biden is the first president to appear live on the show, though it aired a prerecorded interview with Barack Obama in 2010, the Times reports. Biden has appeared on the show 10 times, starting in 2007, when he was a senator.

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