Fact Check: Biden Did NOT Say In June 2024 He Might Resign For Medical Reasons -- Quote Dates Back To 2020

Fact Check

  • by: Ed Payne
Fact Check: Biden Did NOT Say In June 2024 He Might Resign For Medical Reasons -- Quote Dates Back To 2020 Time As VP

Did Joe Biden say in June 2024 that he might resign the presidency for medical reasons? No, that's not true: There are no credible reports or official statements indicating that President Biden recently made such a remark. A video in which Biden said, "...I will develop some disease and say I have to resign," is from 2020 and referred to his time as vice president in the Obama administration from January 2009 to January 2017.

The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) published on X, formerly Twitter, by InfoWars host Alex Jones on June 30, 2024, with a CNN logo and the on-screen title "BIDEN AND HARRIS ON THEIR RELATIONSHIP BEHIND THE SCENES." The post had a caption over the video saying:

Breaking Video: Biden Says He May Resign The Presidency For Medical Reasons

This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:

chrome_X1HGR78897.png

(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Jul 1 15:42:07 2024 UTC)

The video

While the post's caption calls the clip "Breaking" that description is, on credible news platforms, reserved for current events and revelations of once-secret matters.

The publicly broadcast interview with then-President-Elect Biden and then-Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris first aired more than three years earlier on CNN, on December 3, 2020, not in late June 2024.

Biden was not talking about resigning the presidency. He was referring to one possible scenario of his time as vice president under Barack Obama from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017. Asked about disagreements with Harris, Biden compared it to his relationship with Obama. In the social media video, he said:

When we disagree, it'll be just like -- so far, it's been just like when Barack and I did.

It's in private. She'll say, 'I think we should do A, B, C, or D,' and I'll say, 'I like A, don't like B and C. And let's go, OK.'

And like I told Barack, if I reached something where there's a fundamental disagreement we have based on a moral principle, I'll develop some disease and say I have to resign.

But nothing like that ever happened. Biden served eight years under Obama in the White House. There's nothing in the context of the hourlong interview with CNN host Jake Tapper that suggests Biden was talking about faking illness to leave the presidency. He was referring to his prior role as vice president.

Google search

Lead Stories searched using keywords on Google News, visible here (archived here), and found no credible reporting as of July 1, 2024, to corroborate the claim that Biden said he may resign the presidency for medical reasons.

Read more

Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Biden can be found here.

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  Ed Payne

Ed Payne is a staff writer at Lead Stories. He is an Emmy Award-winning journalist as part of CNN’s coverage of 9/11. Ed worked at CNN for nearly 24 years with the CNN Radio Network and CNN Digital. Most recently, he was a Digital Senior Producer for Gray Television’s Digital Content Center, the company’s digital news hub for 100+ TV stations. Ed also worked as a writer and editor for WebMD. In addition to his journalistic endeavors, Ed is the author of two children’s book series: “The Daily Rounds of a Hound” and “Vail’s Tales.” 

Read more about or contact Ed Payne

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