Biden Memoir Says Trump’s Jan. 6 Role ‘Should Follow Him to His Grave’ as Cancer Limits His Book Tour

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (TodayViralUSA) — Former President Joe Biden uses the first excerpt of his White House memoir to deliver a pointed indictment of his successor, writing that Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, “should follow him to his grave” and accusing his administration of setting out to “tear down institutions and inflame hatreds.”

The excerpt from “Promise Me, America” was published Monday by The Atlantic. The full book is due out Nov. 17.

‘Donald Trump led an insurrection’

Biden, 83, devotes much of the passage to the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters as Congress met to certify the 2020 election. “Donald Trump led an insurrection,” he writes. “His goal was to remain in power after the American people had voted him out of office.”

He rejects the description of the rioters as peaceful protesters, saying they “came armed to stop the official certification of a legitimate election,” and criticizes Trump for later granting more than 1,500 pardons to those involved.

“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 writes. “What Trump did on January 6, 2021, should never be forgotten. It should follow him to his grave.”

A surprisingly friendly Oval Office meeting

The former president also recounts a two-hour Oval Office meeting with Trump shortly after the 2020 election. According to Biden, Trump opened with flattery, telling him, “You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends,” and later saying he had been relieved not to have to run against him.

Biden writes that he cut the compliments short to give Trump what he called “a tour of the world,” covering Ukraine, NATO, Russia, Gaza and the Middle East, China, the Americas and Africa. He says Trump focused on the personalities of foreign leaders rather than the substance of the issues — an exchange that left him worried his successor would dismantle much of his agenda.

Biden says those fears were confirmed by Trump’s opening weeks back in office, citing the Department of Government Efficiency and the rapid reversal of his climate policies. “All presidents must confront a feeling that their legacy is vulnerable to the pendulum of politics and the whims of their successors,” he writes.

Health limits the book tour

In a social media post on Sunday, Biden said his doctors “continue to be encouraged” by his response to treatment for prostate cancer, but that he “won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book” as he had hoped. “Some days are better than others,” he wrote. “It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down.”

The memoir arrives days after Democrats won broad majorities in both chambers of Congress in last week’s midterm elections, though The Associated Press noted that many voters still hold skeptical views of Biden’s single term. Its title echoes his 2017 book “Promise Me, Dad,” about the illness and death of his son Beau.