“We cannot let him win”: Biden may have opted out of re-election were it not for Trump

During a campaign fundraising event outside of Boston on Tuesday, President Joe Biden revealed that he may have opted out of going after a 2024 re-election bid if it weren’t for Donald Trump, telling donors that democracy is “more at risk in 2024” because the former president and his followers are out to “destroy” democratic institutions.

“We’ve got to get it done, not because of me . . . If Trump wasn’t running I’m not sure I’d be running. We cannot let him win,” Biden said, hitting the last words slowly for emphasis, as described by AP News. After saying this, Biden phrased it differently to reporters later in the day when asked if he’d still be running if Trump weren’t in the picture, saying, “I expect so, but look, he is running and I have to run.”

In The Boston Herald‘s coverage of the campaign event at which Biden did this bit of back and forth, they provide further clarity as to where the current president’s mind is at in terms of seeking to defeat Trump once again, if only to prevent him from doing further damage, quoting his response to Trump’s comments that he’s out for “retribution” if he wins, to root out the “vermin” in the country — a throwback, vibes wise, to the language used in Germany in the 1930s.

“Trump’s not even hiding the ball anymore. He’s telling us what he’s going to do,” Biden said. “He’s making no bones about it.”