Biden says he wouldn't have run for a second term in 2024 if he knew he
had cancer
[November 12, 2026]
By BILL BARROW
ATLANTA (AP) — Joe Biden says he did not know he had cancer while he was
president and would not have sought a second term if he already had 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 Nov. 20, “I would’ve not gone forward” with a
2024 reelection bid that ended after a disastrous 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 in the interview.
Still, he argued that 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 — he was 81 at the time — and his ability to
defeat Trump.
“First of all, I thought there’d be another debate, which there wasn’t,”
Biden 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 he was in office.
He said age itself was not disqualifying and meant he had experience and
deep personal relationships with world leaders.
“I believe that on an objective basis, I was the best-equipped person to
do the job,” he said.
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Former US president Joe Biden, center right, and Hunter Biden,
center left, at the College Historical Society in Dublin where
Hunter Biden will receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding
Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov.
10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
 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 Joe Biden left office, his son has become a higher profile
public presence, sparring with Republicans on social media, posting
lengthy thoughts on the nation's direction and launching his own
cryptocurrency.
Joe Biden defended his son's public persona and his decision to
pardon Hunter Biden after the younger Biden's 2024 conviction on
federal felony gun charges and his guilty plea to federal tax
charges. Hunter Biden also had faced years of scrutiny and withering
Republican attacks over his international business dealings.
Hunter Biden has said the pardon damaged his father's legacy, but
the former president said Trump's penchant for vengeance made it
necessary.
“He goes after people without any basis, whether they’re viewed as
an enemy. I knew what he would do,” Joe Biden said. “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.”
Biden called his son “one of the brightest men I know,” adding, “I’m
really proud of him.”
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