Biden Defends 2024 Run in New Memoir at 84 as Stage 4 Cancer Limits Promotion
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 13
Biden Defends 2024 Run in New Memoir at 84 as Stage 4 Cancer Limits Promotion
2 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 13
Summary
Tuesday’s memoir release, “Promise Me, America,” presents Biden’s fullest defense of his presidency and his 2024 reelection bid, arguing he felt obliged to run and still believed he was the strongest Democrat against Trump.
June 2024’s debate remains the book’s turning point: Biden says it “didn’t feel right from the start,” knew immediately it had gone badly, and later concluded, “I was wrong” to expect a rebound.
Pelosi and Schumer emerge as chief targets in Biden’s account of the pressure campaign, with Biden writing that party leaders publicly deferred to him while privately pushing him to quit; he says he later repaired ties with Pelosi.
Trump is the memoir’s central antagonist, from Jan. 6 to the pandemic, though Biden also recounts Trump’s gracious private note at the White House and writes that “there were two Donald Trumps.”
Stage 4 prostate cancer, diagnosed in 2025 after it spread to his bones, gives the book a mortality theme and has already forced Biden, who turns 84 next week, to scale back promotion.