Former US president Joe Biden — whose legacy includes calling himself a Zionist and providing extensive political and military support to Israel during Israel's genocide in Gaza, which analysts and a Democratic report believe cost his party the 2024 election — has announced the forthcoming publication of a memoir about his time in the White House.
In May 2025, just four months after he left office as the oldest sitting president, Biden revealed that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
He subsequently began radiation therapy.
"Since I left the presidency, I've had a lot of people ask me, 'Joe, what have you been doing?'" the 83-year-old said in a video on his X account.
"I've been spending a lot of time with my family. I'm dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and I've been getting treatment, and it's been going really well," he said, thanking his well-wishers.
He said his upcoming presidential memoir, "Promise Me, America," would be about the "challenges we faced as a nation, about the decisions I made, and why I made them."
He listed several key moments that marked his 2021-2025 presidency, including the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump, the war in Ukraine and the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
It will also cover "why I chose to run for reelection, and why I chose to step aside," Biden added.
His video promotion of the book omitted any mention of Israel’s genocide of besieged Palestinians and the US role in it.
Harris' memoir
Despite persistent questions about his health as the oldest-ever US president, Biden, then aged 81, decided to run for a second term in 2024.
Following a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024 and a wave of pressure from Democrats, Biden announced his withdrawal from the race.
Trump went on to beat Biden's replacement candidate — then-vice president Kamala Harris.
Trump, who turned 80 in June, will surpass Biden's age-record by the time he leaves office in January 2029.
With a publication date of November 17, 2026, Biden's memoir will be released just a few weeks after the critical midterm elections.
Harris published her own memoir last year. Titled "107 Days," it covers her abbreviated campaign against Trump after Biden dropped out.
In February, senior US Democratic officials reviewing the party’s defeat in the 2024 presidential election concluded that the Biden administration’s stance on Gaza was a "net-negative" factor for candidate and former vice president Kamala Harris.
Asked for comment by Axios that first reported on the Democratic autopsy, a Harris aide pointed to recent remarks she made during a tour for her memoir, where she said the Biden administration "should have done more" and "should have spoken publicly" in criticising how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted the genocide.
