Former President Joe Biden has delivered some of his sharpest public rebukes of Donald Trump since leaving office, writing in an upcoming memoir that Trump’s actions during the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol “should follow him to his grave.”
The remarks appear in an excerpt from Biden’s forthcoming book, Promise Me, America, published in The Atlantic and reported by NBC News. The memoir is scheduled for release on November 17, offering a blunt assessment of political rivals and the tumultuous transition of power.
In the book excerpt, Biden argues that Trump led an insurrection and criticizes his decision to issue sweeping pardons to defendants charged in connection with the Capitol riot. NBC News reported that Biden wrote harshly about the rioters, stating they deserved prison terms rather than clemency.
The criminals who attacked law-enforcement officers that day didn’t deserved pardons,
Biden wrote, adding that They deserved prison terms.
He also wrote that Trump and the president’s supporters continue to preen and posture like they’re supporters of law enforcement.
You don’t get to turn a blind eye to cops being punched, speared, sprayed, and brutalized and call yourself a friend of law enforcement,
Biden wrote, according to Yahoo News Malaysia.
Trump has defended his stance while pointing to Biden’s own controversial decisions to issue preemptive pardons before leaving office. Biden issued preemptive pardons to his son, Hunter Biden, and other members of his family, lawmakers on the congressional Jan. 6 committee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley.
I want to share a brief update. My presidential memoir, PROMISE ME, AMERICA, is coming out on November 17th. I hope you'll read it. It covers my years as President. The challenges we faced, the decisions I made, and why I made them. It's about who we are as a nation. What we…
The memoir also details a two-hour private meeting between the two leaders at the White House eight days after the 2024 presidential election. Biden recalled that Trump’s demeanor during the briefing on global issues surprised him by bordering on fawning, noting in the excerpt that he thought Trump might be putting me on
during their meeting in the Oval Office.
According to NBC News, Trump told Biden that if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends,
a remark that left the outgoing president too stunned to respond. Trump also praised Biden’s job-creation performance as extraordinary and expressed relief that he did not have to run against him. Trump nodded appreciatively during the briefing.
Despite the pleasantries, Biden noted a curious pattern in how Trump approached world affairs. Rather than focusing on complex geopolitical challenges, Trump gravitated toward the personalities of foreign leaders, comparing the discussions to sharing gossip at a dinner party.
The impending book release comes as Biden manages ongoing health challenges.
Some days are better than others,
Biden wrote on X. It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down.
