According to White House officials, Joe Biden regrets withdrawing from the presidential race and believes he could have defeated Donald Trump in the election last month, despite dismal poll results.

The US president reportedly regrets appointing Merrick Garland as attorney general, as he was slow to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January 2021 insurrection while overseeing the prosecution of Biden's son Hunter, as Breitbart News reported.

Biden, who has less than three weeks left in his single-term presidency, admits in a Washington Post profile that he regrets withdrawing his candidacy in July due to a poor debate performance against his rival, Trump.

Garland Regret

Biden's reservations about Garland are noteworthy, as he nominated him as attorney general the day after a US Capitol events on January 6, 2021.

After years of alleged politicization under Trump, Biden said Garland would restore “the honor, the integrity, the independence” of the justice department.

“Your loyalty is not to me. “Your loyalty is not to me. It’s to the law, to the constitution, to the people of this nation,” Biden told Garland at his official unveiling.

According to the Post, Biden was convinced by his chief of staff, Ron Klain, to nominate Garland, who was previously known as Barack Obama's failed candidate to succeed Antonin Scalia on the US Supreme Court. However, the nomination was thwarted by a Republican-led Senate.

Case for Appointment

Biden's backers said that Alabama Democratic senator Doug Jones would be more suited to Washington's harsh partisanship.

Garland, however, was pushed because he was allegedly known for fairness, and would send a more reassuring message of justice department independence after Trump, wrote Klain.

Trump, however, accused Biden of "weaponizing" the department during criminal investigations into his January 6 role and holding classified White House documents, while also investigating Hunter Biden and the president for illegally retaining classified documents.

The Fall from Power

President resigned from his position on the Democrat ticket to be replaced by Vice President Harris amid mounting pressure from Democrats. Polling indicated a near-certain election loss to Trump, who sought a historic return to the White House as the Republican nominee.

Harris's rise to the head of the ticket boosted enthusiasm and poll numbers, but he lost the electoral college and popular vote.

According to the Washington Post, Biden and his allies have avoided blaming Harris, but they feel he would have won if he had remained firm.

Blame for Biden

Many Harris supporters disagree, blaming the president for withdrawing too late, leaving the vice president little time to campaign.

They say Biden's decision to seek a second term breached his 2020 campaign promise to be a “transitional” figure who would step down after one term after leading the country away from Trump.

“Biden ran on the promise that he was going to be a transitional president, and in effect, have one term before handing it off to another generation,” Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator for Connecticut told the Post.

“I think his running again broke that concept – the conceptual underpinning of the theory that he would end the Trump appeal, he would defeat Trumpism and enable a new era,” Blumenthal added.