第46任总统为其竞选连任的决定进行辩护，该决定如今被其党内许多人视为错误，并回顾了迫使他结束竞选的那场灾难性辩论。
The 46th president defends his decision to run for re-election, which many in his party now regard as a mistake, and revisits the disastrous debate that forced him to end his campaign.
前总统约瑟夫·R·拜登 Jr. 在新回忆录《答应我，美国》中，时而倔强、时而防备地描述了他 2024 年竞选连任的命运攸关决定、对那场使其竞选脱轨的辩论的即时反应，以及对以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡的恼火。这本 480 页的书定于周二发行，正值拜登第二个任期大致过半之际。现年 83 岁的前总统患有侵袭性前列腺癌，因病情缩减了回忆录的宣传活动。以下是该书的五大看点。他表示，顾问们在 2023 年一致支持他竞选连任。
Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., at times defiant and defensive, describes his fateful decision to run for re-election in 2024, his immediate reaction to the debate that derailed his campaign and his exasperation with Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in a new memoir, “Promise Me, America.”Here are five takeaways from the 480-page book, scheduled to be released on Tuesday, at what would have been the rough midpoint of Mr. Biden’s second term. The 83-year-old former president, who has aggressive prostate cancer, has scaled back promotion of the memoir because of his condition. He says his advisers unanimously supported his re-election run in 2023.
拜登写道，他在 2023 年与白宫高级顾问讨论竞选连任想法后，坚定了参选决定。
Mr. Biden writes that he solidified his decision to run for re-election after discussing the idea with top advisers at the White House in 2023.
他回忆，反响是支持且一致的。拜登写道，当时竞选活动已开始全面启动：电视广告和宣布参选的准备工作都已就绪。
The reception, he recalls, was supportive and unanimous. At the time of the meeting, Mr. Biden writes, the campaign was already starting to kick into gear: He had TV ads and an announcement prepared.
拜登写道：“我们挨个征求了意见。每个人都谈了对这场竞选的看法。所有人都支持继续选。没有人提出异议或反对。我也支持继续选。”当时拜登刚过完80岁生日，支持率持续走低，他曾把自己的总统任期形容为通往民主党下一代人的桥梁。
“We went around the room,” writes Mr. Biden, who was just past his 80th birthday, had a drooping approval rating and had once portrayed his presidency as a bridge to the next generation of Democrats. “Everyone offered their thoughts on the race. Everyone was in. There was no demurral or dissent. I was in.”
前副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯在去年出版的回忆录《107天》中称，拜登决定再次参选是“鲁莽之举”，她“或许”本应劝他不要参选。但哈里斯写道，她当时处于“最不适合提出这一意见的位置”。拜登在书中写道，他对各项议题了如指掌，而且在初选中展现了实力，轻松击败了明尼苏达州众议员迪恩·菲利普斯的三度竞选挑战，赢得提名。
In her own memoir published last year, “107 Days,” former Vice President Kamala Harris said Mr. Biden’s decision to run again was “recklessness” and that she should “perhaps” have advised him against it. But Ms. Harris wrote that she was in “the worst position to make the case.”In his book, Mr. Biden writes that he was on top of the issues and that he had showed strength in the primary by gliding to the nomination over a long-shot bid from a third-term Minnesota congressman, Dean Phillips.
他说，辩论结束后他立刻就知道自己“搞砸了”。2024年6月，拜登在与唐纳德·J·特朗普的辩论中表现糟糕。辩论结束后，拜登与第一夫人吉尔·拜登博士一同出席了一场观战聚会，吉尔当时宣称他表现很好。
He says he knew right after the debate that he ‘screwed that up.’After his disastrous debate performance against Donald J. Trump in June 2024, Mr. Biden appeared at a watch party with the first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, who declared that he had done well.
“你回答了每一个问题，”她说，而拜登面无表情地看着，勉强挤出一丝笑容。“你掌握了所有事实。”私下里，拜登立刻告诉吉尔，他把辩论搞砸了。
“You answered every question,” she said as a stone-faced Mr. Biden looked on, half-smiling. “You knew all the facts.”Privately, Mr. Biden immediately told Ms. Biden that he had bungled the debate.
拜登写道，他告诉妻子：“‘唉，我搞砸了。’”他还说自己用了更粗鲁的字眼。他写道，他在台上就知道自己“这一晚糟透了”。
“‘Well, I screwed that up,’” Mr. Biden told his wife, he writes, adding that he had used harsher language. He knew onstage that he was “having a terrible night,” he writes.
他写道，辩论结束后，他立即向白宫幕僚长罗恩·克莱恩征求意见。“不太好，”克莱恩告诉他。
After the debate, he also promptly sought an assessment from Ron Klain, his chief of staff, he writes. “Not good,” Mr. Klain told him.
辩论中，拜登曾说过一句令人印象深刻的话：“我们终于击败了联邦医疗保险。”这句话促使特朗普回应道：“他把它打死了。”
During the debate, Mr. Biden had memorably declared that “We finally beat Medicare,” a line that prompted Mr. Trump to say, “He beat it to death.”
拜登写道：“我本来想说的是，‘我们终于击败了大型制药公司。’”他的表现引发了民主党人长达一个月的焦虑不安，直到拜登退出竞选。
“What I meant to say,” Mr. Biden writes, “was, ‘We finally beat Big Pharma.’”His performance led to a month of Democratic hand-wringing until Mr. Biden dropped out of the race.
在精简版图书宣传之旅中，拜登先生淡化了那场改变历史的辩论。“它没有困扰我，因为它并不重要，”他告诉《人物》杂志。
During his abridged book tour, Mr. Biden has downplayed the history-altering debate. “It didn’t disturb me because it wasn’t consequential,” he told People magazine.
拜登先生表示，特朗普关于其对1月6日事件负责的“回答，以及他拒绝说会接受即将举行的选举结果，这些都让他丧失了资格。”拜登还指出，其他总统也曾辩论失利。
Mr. Biden says that Mr. Trump’s “answers about his responsibility for January 6, and his refusal to say he would accept the results of the upcoming election, were disqualifying.”And Mr. Biden notes that other presidents had bad debates.
“区别在于，其他每一位总统都有机会在第二场辩论中挽回颜面，”拜登写道。“结果表明，这个机会对我不再可用。”他说，在退出竞选前，他曾为一个“两难困境”而苦恼。
“The difference was that every other president was given the chance to redeem themselves in a second debate,” Mr. Biden writes. “As it turned out, that chance would not be available to me.”He says he wrestled with a ‘dilemma’ before dropping out.
拜登回忆，在退出竞选前大约一周，他与纽约州参议员、民主党领袖查克·舒默在特拉华州的海滩别墅会面。在一次情绪激动的谈话中，舒默敦促拜登退出。
Mr. Biden recalls meeting with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, at Mr. Biden’s beach house in Delaware about a week before dropping out of the race. In an emotional conversation, Mr. Schumer urged Mr. Biden to withdraw.
“我告诉舒默，他胆量很大（我当时可能用了不同的说法），来到我家，叫我退出竞选，”拜登写道。“忠诚对我来说很重要。”舒默的一位代表没有立即回应置评请求。
“I told Schumer he had a lot of gumption (I may have said it differently at the time), coming to my home and telling me to get out of the race,” Mr. Biden writes. “Loyalty matters to me.”A representative for Mr. Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
拜登还受到了加利福尼亚州众议员、前众议院议长南希·佩洛西的施压。他写道，她告诉他，没有“民调”显示他有“任何机会”。要求拜登退出的呼声持续高涨。他写道，他得知华盛顿州参议员帕蒂·默里计划发布一封信，披露民主党内大量叛逃。
Mr. Biden was also pressured by Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former House speaker. He writes that she told him that there were “no polls” that showed he had “any chance.”The calls for Mr. Biden to drop out continued to grow. He learned, he writes, that Senator Patty Murray of Washington planned to release a letter surfacing major Democratic defections.
“这让我压力很大，因为即使到了那个时点，也没多少领导人愿意在要求我退出的呼吁上署名，”拜登写道。
“This weighed heavily on me, because even at that point, not a lot of leaders had been willing to put their names to a call for me to withdraw,” Mr. Biden writes.
拜登写道，他面临一个“两难困境”——并且他对自己面临的挑战心中有数。
Mr. Biden writes that he faced a “dilemma” — and that he had a handle on the challenges facing him.
“我老了吗？”他写道。“是的。我能胜任这份工作吗？能。选民对通货膨胀愤怒吗？是的。他们对移民愤怒吗？是的。所有这些都是棘手的问题。但并非不可克服。”
“Was I old?” he writes. “Yes. Was I able to do the job? Yes. Were voters angry about inflation? Yes. Were they angry about immigration? Yes. All tough problems. But not insurmountable ones.”
他列举了一些主要民主党人，称他们希望他继续竞选。他还写道：“我相信民主党的普通党员仍然支持我。”
He lists a number of leading Democrats who he says wanted him to carry on the campaign. And, he writes, “I believed the Democratic rank and file were still with me.”
但在与舒默先生会面八天后，他退出了竞选，他写道，这是受到“我们党中如此多的重要声音”的压力，这些人“决心把我赶下台”。他写道，哈里斯女士多次问他是否“确定”要退出。当他说是的时候，她随即要求他立即支持她，而不是拖延。他回忆说，大约20分钟后，他同意了。
But eight days after the meeting with Mr. Schumer, he withdrew from the race, pressured, he writes, by “so many major voices in our party” who were “determined to force me out.”Ms. Harris asked him several times if he was “sure” that he wanted to drop out, he writes. When he said yes, she then asked him to endorse her immediately, rather than with a delay, he recalls. About 20 minutes later, he agreed to do so, he writes. .
拜登先生后来试图修复与佩洛西女士的关系，尽管他说她曾极力推动他退出竞选。他写道，他们在一家意大利餐厅共进午餐，重新联系，并补充说他们“共同经历了太多，不应让裂痕无法修复”。他说内塔尼亚胡在误导他方面“毫无顾忌”。
Mr. Biden later moved to repair his ties with Ms. Pelosi, despite what he said were her furious efforts to push him out of the race. They reconnected for lunch at an Italian restaurant, he writes, adding that they “had been through too much together to allow a rift to go un-mended.”He says Netanyahu had ‘no qualms’ about misleading him.
拜登先生详细写道，内塔尼亚胡在2023年10月7日袭击事件后，在美国支持下发动了加沙战争，这是拜登总统任期内最具争议的时期之一。
Mr. Biden writes at length about Mr. Netanyahu, who prosecuted a war in Gaza with U.S. support after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, one of the most contentious periods of Mr. Biden’s presidency.
拜登先生说，他觉得内塔尼亚胡经常误导他。他描述了一种“熟悉的模式”，即拜登敦促以色列政府尽力避免平民伤亡。
Mr. Biden says he felt Mr. Netanyahu regularly misled him. He describes a “familiar pattern” as Mr. Biden urged the Israeli government to take pains to prevent civilian casualties.
“他会承诺做得更多，”拜登写道，“然后又会发生另一次激进行动，导致更多平民丧生。”
“He would promise to do more,” Mr. Biden writes, “and then another aggressive action would follow, killing more civilians.”
拜登写道，内塔尼亚胡的行为，就像他自己的连任竞选一样，构成了一个“两难困境”。“比比对做出他无权——或无意——履行的承诺毫无顾忌，”拜登写道，使用了这位总理的绰号。以色列政府未立即回应置评请求。
Mr. Biden writes that Mr. Netanyahu’s actions, like his own re-election campaign, posed a “dilemma.”“Bibi had no qualms about making promises he had no power — or intention — to keep,” Mr. Biden writes, using the prime minister’s nickname. The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
拜登处理美以关系的方式分裂了民主党，并激怒了他自己政府中的一些人。米特·罗姆尼给了他一些建议。
Mr. Biden’s handling of the U.S.-Israeli relationship divided Democrats and angered some in his own administration. Mitt Romney gave him some advice.
拜登在书中写道，在担任总统一年后，他邀请参议员米特·罗姆尼——这位温和派犹他州共和党人、前总统候选人——参观白宫。
A year into his presidency, Mr. Biden writes, he invited Senator Mitt Romney, the moderate Utah Republican and former presidential nominee, for a tour of the White House.
罗姆尼给年事已高的拜登一些建议，后者开始以僵硬、拖沓的步伐行走。
Mr. Romney offered some advice to the aging Mr. Biden, who had started to walk in a stiff, shuffling style.
据该书记载，比拜登年轻四岁的罗姆尼说：“甩动你的手臂。”参议员告诉总统：“你走路时双手僵硬地放在身侧。甩动手臂，你会看起来更有活力、更自信。”拜登写道，他试图遵循参议员的“好建议”。
“Pump your arms,” Mr. Romney, who is four years younger than Mr. Biden, said, according to the book. The senator told the president: “You’re holding your hands stiffly by your side when you walk. Pump your arms and you’ll look more energetic and confident.”Mr. Biden writes that he tried to follow the senator’s “good advice.”