ATLANTA (AP) — Joe Biden says he did not know he had cancer while he was president and would not have sought a second term if he already had been diagnosed.
The former Democratic president's comments came in an interview with People magazine before the release of his White House memoir on Tuesday.
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Former US president Joe Biden, center right, and Hunter Biden, center left, at the College Historical Society in Dublin where Hunter Biden will receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
Former US president Joe Biden, center, arrives for a visit to the College Historical Society in Dublin where his son Hunter Biden is due to receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
Former US president Joe Biden, center right, and Hunter Biden, center left, at the College Historical Society in Dublin where Hunter Biden will receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
Former US president Joe Biden, center, arriving for his son Hunter Biden's visit to the College Historical Society in Dublin to receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
“If I had known that I was feeling lousy because I had cancer,” said Biden, who turns 84 on Nov. 20, “I would’ve not gone forward” with a 2024 reelection bid that ended after a disastrous debate performance against Republican Donald Trump.
Biden was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer months after leaving office in 2025.
“I don’t think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running” for president, Biden said in the interview.
Still, he argued that the June 2024 debate, less than five months before Election Day, was not a seismic event even if it accelerated Democrats' concerns about his age — he was 81 at the time — and his ability to defeat Trump.
“First of all, I thought there’d be another debate, which there wasn’t,” Biden said. “But notwithstanding the fact that there wasn’t another debate, it didn’t disturb me because it wasn’t consequential.”
Within weeks, Biden announced he was ending his campaign and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, who secured the nomination and lost to Trump in the general election.
Biden insisted he was able to perform his duties while he was in office. He said age itself was not disqualifying and meant he had experience and deep personal relationships with world leaders.
“I believe that on an objective basis, I was the best-equipped person to do the job,” he said.
His son Hunter told the BBC in August that the cancer had spread and was causing his father pain. "It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects,” he said.
Since Joe Biden left office, his son has become a higher profile public presence, sparring with Republicans on social media, posting lengthy thoughts on the nation's direction and launching his own cryptocurrency.
Joe Biden defended his son's public persona and his decision to pardon Hunter Biden after the younger Biden's 2024 conviction on federal felony gun charges and his guilty plea to federal tax charges. Hunter Biden also had faced years of scrutiny and withering Republican attacks over his international business dealings.
Hunter Biden has said the pardon damaged his father's legacy, but the former president said Trump's penchant for vengeance made it necessary.
“He goes after people without any basis, whether they’re viewed as an enemy. I knew what he would do,” Joe Biden said. “If I hadn’t pardoned — not just some of my family members, anyone who’s dealt with me — he would go back and try to do harm to them.”
Biden called his son “one of the brightest men I know,” adding, “I’m really proud of him.”
Former US president Joe Biden, center right, and Hunter Biden, center left, at the College Historical Society in Dublin where Hunter Biden will receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
Former US president Joe Biden, center, arrives for a visit to the College Historical Society in Dublin where his son Hunter Biden is due to receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
Former US president Joe Biden, center right, and Hunter Biden, center left, at the College Historical Society in Dublin where Hunter Biden will receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
Former US president Joe Biden, center, arriving for his son Hunter Biden's visit to the College Historical Society in Dublin to receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected accusations that Israel has been delaying the entry of winter supplies into the Gaza Strip as severe rains flood makeshift tents, worsening conditions in the enclave this week.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said a tanker caught fire after hitting a naval mine early on Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz. And Israel struck Gaza twice, killing three Palestinians.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Read our full coverage here.
Netanyahu denied that Israel was responsible for worsening conditions for Palestinians in Gaza’s tent camps, which have been hit by severe winter flooding.
He instead blamed Hamas, saying the Palestinian militant group refuses to disarm and seizes humanitarian aid for military use. He provided no evidence for the aid seizure claim.
His remarks came after the U.S.-created Board of Peace said Monday that Israel’s delays in allowing winter supplies into Gaza had “exacerbated the consequences of a foreseeable humanitarian challenge.”
The U.N. and other aid groups say more than 150,000 tents and pumps to remove floodwaters are ready to enter Gaza, but Israel has not authorized their entry.
Torrential rain has battered the war-torn enclave in recent days, damaging tens of thousands of makeshift tents. At least four people died Sunday when a large sandstone slab collapsed.
An Israeli strike on Wednesday morning killed one person in Gaza City, and a second later in the day killed two more people, according to Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
The Israeli military said both strikes targeted military operatives. It did not provide additional details.
Large-scale fighting has slowed since Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal in October 2025, but Israel continues to launch near-daily strikes that have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said a tanker caught fire early Wednesday after striking a naval mine while traveling along an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway, Iranian state media reported.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, a British military agency that monitors maritime safety, said a tanker was involved in an incident while transiting the strait.
The agency did not identify the tanker. Further details, including the crew’s status, were not immediately available. It was unclear whether the Iranian and UKMTO reports referred to the same incident.
Col. Turki al-Maliki, a military spokesperson for the Saudi-backed forces operating in Yemen, said in a post on X that they had intercepted three missiles that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched toward the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Wednesday.
The interceptions were the latest announced this week as the Iran-aligned rebels continue to use parts of Yemen they control to launch attacks toward Saudi Arabia and disrupt trade through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Houthi rebels held a mass funeral on Wednesday for the 44 people they say were killed near the Yemeni capital of Sanaa during recent airstrikes conducted by Saudi Arabia.
Associated Press footage showed people mourning their loved ones, including seven members of the same family.
“They were women and children,” said Hamad al-Bas, a relative of one of the victims. ”Our message to Saudi Arabia is that their blood will not be shed in vain. We must avenge their deaths, no matter how long it takes.”
The Saturday strikes, which wounded 40 others, were part of an escalation in fighting since the summer between the rebels and the Saudi-backed government forces.
A Cairo judge postponed the retrial of the editor-in-chief of one of Egypt’s last independent news outlets for a week after her defense lawyers asked him to recuse himself, the outlet said.
Lina Attalah, a co-founder and editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, is challenging a one-year prison sentence and a fine imposed in absentia on charges of operating a website without a license and spreading false news.
Mada Masr said Wednesday that her lawyers sought the judge’s recusal because he had ordered the outlet’s closure late last month in a separate case. Attalah's retrial is now scheduled for Nov. 18 while hearings on Mada Masr’s appeal against its closure begin Nov. 25.
Mada Masr has investigated allegations of government corruption and human rights violations amid a widening crackdown on the press in Egypt.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for dialogue and restraint to ease regional tensions during a meeting Wednesday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to Sharif's office.
Sharif expressed deep concern over the prolonged conflict as the two spoke on the sidelines of the United Nations climate summit in Turkey, his office said. The prime minister stressed the need to build on an interim deal reached between the United States and Iran in June.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Palestinians gather beside their damaged tent a day after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect damage to a building and tents a day after they were hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect damage to a building and tents a day after they were hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect damage to a building and tents a day after they were hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect their damaged tent a day after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
