Joe Biden said he was unaware he was suffering from a life-threatening illness during his presidency and would not have sought a second term had he been diagnosed sooner. The former president made the remarks in an interview with People magazine ahead of the release of his White House memoir on Tuesday.
“If I had known that I was feeling lousy because I had cancer, I would have not gone forward, because I don’t think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running,” said Biden, who turns 84 on Nov. 20. “I would’ve not gone forward, because I don’t think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running for [president]. But that wasn’t the case.”
Biden was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer several months after leaving office in 2025. Before his diagnosis, he had not been screened for prostate cancer since 2014. U.S. guidelines have long recommended that men not be routinely screened for prostate cancer after age 70, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden downplays his debate performance in the 2024 Presidential campaign
Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris after his disastrous debate against now-President Donald Trump in June 2024. The former president faced both questions about his health and pressure from other Democrats to end his campaign. However, he insisted that his performance against Trump “wasn’t consequential.”
“Look, I don’t know anybody who hasn’t made a mistake in a debate,” he says. “To me, it was not very consequential. First of all, I thought there’d be another debate, which there wasn’t. But notwithstanding the fact that there wasn’t another debate, it didn’t disturb me because it wasn’t consequential.”
Biden’s memoir, Promise Me, America, is scheduled for release on Nov. 17 and details his four years as president, the challenges his administration faced, the decisions he made, and his reasoning behind them. One excerpt preview describes Trump sending Biden a report in 2021 with unusually warm language about the incoming president’s love for the country. However, the White House quickly pushed back, calling Biden “a disgrace.”
Biden wrote on X that his cancer diagnosis would limit his appearances to promote his upcoming presidential memoir, saying he “won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped.” Still, he told the magazine he feels sharp: “I’m not saying I’ll live forever, but the point is that, you know, I have all my faculties, I have access to all the things I had before and, you know, I feel good.”
Published: Nov 12, 2026 06:30 am