Former President Joe Biden says he would have resigned from the White House and abandoned his 2024 reelection campaign if he had known he was battling cancer while serving as commander in chief. The 83-year-old made the revelation during an exclusive interview with PEOPLE published Wednesday, November 11, offering new insight into his health, his controversial decision to seek a second term, and the diagnosis that came months after he left office.
Speaking from his Wilmington, Delaware, home during a November 5 interview, Biden reflected on whether his undiagnosed illness could have influenced his final year in office.
“What I can’t say, because there’s no evidence of it — if I had known that I was feeling lousy because I had cancer, I would have resigned,” Biden told PEOPLE.
“I would’ve not gone forward, because I don’t think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running for [president],” he continued. “But that wasn’t the case.”
Biden’s remarks revisit one of the biggest controversies surrounding the 2024 presidential election: whether his age and physical condition affected his ability to continue leading the country.
Despite acknowledging that a cancer diagnosis would have changed his decision, Biden maintained that he was qualified to remain in office.
“I believe that on an objective basis,” he said, “I was the best-equipped person to do the job.”
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The cancer diagnosis became public on May 18, 2025, nearly four months after his presidency ended. His office announced that doctors had discovered an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
The cancer was assigned a Gleason score of 9, indicating a highly aggressive disease. His medical team also determined that it appeared hormone-sensitive, allowing doctors to pursue treatments intended to control its progression.
The announcement renewed scrutiny of Biden’s health during his final months in office, particularly following his widely criticized presidential debate against Donald Trump on June 27, 2024.
During that debate, Biden struggled to complete several answers and appeared to lose his train of thought. His performance alarmed Democratic lawmakers and intensified concerns about whether he could successfully complete another four-year term.
Biden initially attributed his poor performance to a cold and exhaustion from international travel.
On July 21, 2024, he withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who subsequently secured the Democratic nomination but lost the general election to Trump.
More than two years later, Biden continues to reject the suggestion that his debate performance was politically decisive.
“Look, I don’t know anybody who hasn’t made a mistake in a debate,” Biden said. “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.”
His assessment differs from the political consequences documented at the time. The debate triggered weeks of public concern, pressure from members of his own party, and ultimately his withdrawal from the campaign.
However, Biden has not established that cancer contributed to his debate performance or other symptoms during his presidency.
The discussion also addressed speculation that his diagnosis had been concealed while he occupied the White House.
Biden firmly denied knowingly withholding information about his illness.
“A lot of people do that. They hide bad news from the public if they’re elected officials,” he said. “I didn’t do that. We let the public know when I found out, when I knew what was going on.”
He added that he believes elected leaders should be transparent about serious medical challenges because ordinary Americans face similar experiences.
The former president also addressed questions about why his cancer was not detected earlier.
Routine prostate cancer screening is generally not recommended for men older than 70 under guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Those recommendations weigh the potential benefits of screening against risks, including unnecessary biopsies and treatment complications.
Biden said White House physicians followed established medical practices, although his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, questioned why additional testing had not been performed when he experienced recurring discomfort.
In his upcoming memoir, “Promise Me, America,” Biden reflects on whether those screening recommendations were appropriate for someone in his position.
“I was treated no differently from any other 82-year-old man in America. Maybe I should have been,” he writes.
Despite his advanced diagnosis, Biden offered an encouraging update about his current treatment.
“It looks very positive,” he told PEOPLE, explaining that recent tests have shown no additional spread beyond the areas previously affected.
He also disclosed that he takes eight pills daily as part of his medical care. Although his reported results are encouraging, stable test findings do not mean the cancer has disappeared.
Biden has acknowledged that treatment sometimes slows him down and will limit appearances promoting his new memoir, scheduled for release on November 17.
His family remains central to his recovery, particularly Jill Biden and his grandchildren, whom he described as an important source of daily support.
In the memoir, Biden also describes his determination to continue fighting the disease.
“All I can do — with the help of an incredible medical team and an even better family — is fight like hell,” he writes. “And that’s what I’m doing.”
The interview leaves an important question about Biden’s final year in office unresolved: whether the illness diagnosed after his presidency had already begun affecting his health in 2024.
