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Biden 'Not Sure' He'd Be Running if Trump Was Not in 2024 Race

US President Joe Biden speaks to the press after returning from a trip to Boston, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 05 December 2023. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
US President Joe Biden speaks to the press after returning from a trip to Boston, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 05 December 2023. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
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Biden 'Not Sure' He'd Be Running if Trump Was Not in 2024 Race

US President Joe Biden speaks to the press after returning from a trip to Boston, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 05 December 2023. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
US President Joe Biden speaks to the press after returning from a trip to Boston, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 05 December 2023. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL

President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he may have skipped mounting a 2024 re-election bid if he were not facing Donald Trump because the Republican poses a unique threat to the United States.
"If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running," Biden said at a fundraising event for his 2024 campaign outside of Boston. "We cannot let him win,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
Biden's striking self-assessment comes as even staunch Democratic voters express concerns about the president's age. The Democrat turned 81 years old last month and is already the eldest Oval Office occupant in history.
"Somebody gave him a talking point they thought would sound good," Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021, said at a Fox News town hall on Tuesday.
Biden, seeking a second four-year term in next year's election, later told reporters at the White House that he would not drop out of the race.
"No, not now," Biden said when asked if he would consider stepping aside if Trump, 77, stopped seeking his own second term. "Look, he is running, and I have to run."
Asked if he would have run were Trump not in the race, Biden said, "I expect so."
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden often mentioned that his decision to run was due in part to then-President Trump's handling of issues, including a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Now, Biden faces limited competition for his party's nomination and is again positioning Trump as a danger to democracy itself.
Trump, who faces criminal charges over his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss, has painted Biden as a dangerous autocrat.
After considering the decision for weeks with family and close confidants, Biden announced his re-election bid in April, coming to the private belief that neither Vice President Kamala Harris nor any other Democratic hopeful could beat Trump in next year's general election, according to a former White House official who requested anonymity to discuss the president's thinking.
The president's aides increasingly regard Trump's frontrunner status for the Republican presidential nomination as insurmountable, according to two of those Democrats who also declined to be named.
Biden has repeatedly made comments about Trump during a fundraising blitz that started on Tuesday in Boston and is set to include at least nine events before the end of the month.
"I don’t think anyone doubts our democracy is at risk again," Biden said earlier on Tuesday.
Recent polling has shown the Republican frontrunner leading Biden in hypothetical matchups in key swing states and on the national level.

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World

Pope Leo Summons World's Cardinals for Key Assembly to Help him Govern the Church

A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 20 December 2025. EPA/VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT
A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 20 December 2025. EPA/VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT
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Pope Leo Summons World's Cardinals for Key Assembly to Help him Govern the Church

A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 20 December 2025. EPA/VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT
A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 20 December 2025. EPA/VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT

Pope Leo XIV has summoned the world’s cardinals for two days of meetings to help him govern the church, the Vatican said Saturday, in the clearest sign yet that the new year will signal the unofficial start of his pontificate.

The consistory, as such gatherings are called, will be held Jan. 7-8, immediately following the Jan. 6 conclusion of the 2025 Holy Year, a once-every-quarter century celebration of Christianity.

Leo’s first few months as pope have been dominated by fulfilling the weekly Holy Year obligations of meeting with pilgrimage groups and celebrating special Jubilee audiences and Masses. Additionally, much of his time has been spent wrapping up the outstanding matters of Pope Francis' pontificate.

As a result, the January consistory in many ways will mark the first time that Leo can look ahead to his own agenda following his May 8 election as the first American pope. It is significant that he has summoned all the world’s cardinals to Rome, The Associated Press reported.

Francis had largely eschewed the consistory tradition as a means of governance. He had instead relied on a small group of eight or nine hand-picked cardinal advisers to help him govern and make key decisions.

The Vatican said Saturday that Leo’s first consistory “will be oriented toward fostering common discernment and offering support and advice to the Holy Father in the exercise of his high and grave responsibility in the government of the universal Church.”

Other types of consistories include the formal installation of new cardinals. But no new cardinals will be made at this meeting, which is purely consultative.

World

Iran, UK Foreign Ministers in Rare Direct Contact

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
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Iran, UK Foreign Ministers in Rare Direct Contact

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken by phone with his British counterpart Yvette Cooper, an Iranian foreign ministry statement said on Saturday, in a rare case of direct contact between the two countries.

The ministry said that in Friday's call the ministers "stressed the need to continue consultations at various levels to strengthen mutual understanding and pursue issues of mutual interest."

According to AFP, a UK government source said Cooper "emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran's nuclear program and raised a number of other issues."

The source in London said Cooper raised the case of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran for nearly a year on suspicion of espionage.

The Iranian ministry statement did not mention the case of the two Britons.

It said Araghchi criticized "the irresponsible approach of the three European countries towards the Iranian nuclear issue", referring to Britain, France and Germany.

The three countries at the end of September initiated the reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.

The Foremans, both in their early fifties, were seized in January as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.

Iran accuses the couple of entering the country pretending to be tourists so as to gather information for foreign intelligence services, an allegation the couple's family rejects.

Before Friday's call, the last exchange between the two ministers was in October.

World

Netanyahu Plans to Brief Trump on Possible New Iran Strikes, NBC News Reports

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
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Netanyahu Plans to Brief Trump on Possible New Iran Strikes, NBC News Reports

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo

US President Donald Trump is ​set to be briefed by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any expansion ‌of ‌Iran's ‌ballistic ⁠missile ​program ‌poses a threat that could necessitate swift action, NBC News reported on Saturday.

Israeli ⁠officials are ‌concerned that Iran ‍is ‍reconstituting nuclear enrichment ‍sites the US bombed in June, and ​are preparing to brief Trump for options ⁠on attacking the missile program again, the NBC report added.

Reuters could not verify the report.

New satellite imagery shows recent activity at the Natanz nuclear facility that was damaged during June's 12-day war with Israel, according to the US-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).

During the June conflict, the IAEA confirmed Israeli strikes hit Iran's Natanz underground enrichment plant.

The think tank said the satellite imagery from December 13 show panels placed on top of the remaining anti-drone structure at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP), providing cover for the damaged facility.

It suggested the new covering allows Iran to examine or retrieve materials from the rubble while limiting external observation.

The Natanz uranium enrichment facility, located some 250 km south of the Iranian capital Tehran, is one of Iran's most important and most controversial nuclear facilities in the Middle East.