According to President Joe Biden’s extensive interview with USA Today, he believes he could have won the 2024 election had he chosen to remain in the campaign.
“It’s presumptuous to say so, but I believe sure,” he told the newspaper during a nearly hourlong interview on Sunday. He stated that polls he had seen had led him to this conclusion.
These remarks by the president come as Obama is getting ready to pass the presidency on to Donald Trump, who won the election in November after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.
After a poor June CNN debate performance, doubts about Biden’s age and fitness for office rose, and in July, the oldest serving president—at 82 years old—withdrew from the campaign.
Additionally, Biden expressed uncertainty about his ability to spend another four years in government in an interview he gave to USA Today on Sunday.
“I am uncertain. Who on earth has any idea? “I wasn’t hoping to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old,” Biden said, adding that he hadn’t planned to run for president at that age.
Biden has stated that he has not determined whether to grant any preemptive pardons for possible targets of Trump before to his departure from office in less than two weeks. In December, he pardoned his son, Hunter. During their post-election meeting in the Oval Office, Biden cautioned Trump from carrying out his threats to attack his opponents.
“I tried to make clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores,” Biden stated, with the addition that Trump “listened” but did not specify his intentions.
Preemptive pardons, according to Biden, would depend “a little bit” on Trump’s choice of appointees for senior government positions.
According to a prior report by AWN, several current and former officials, including retired Gen. Mark Milley, former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, Sen. Adam Schiff, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, were being considered for pardons.
At his press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club on Tuesday, Trump once again criticized Biden’s economic policies, this time in response to a question on food costs. However, Biden did reveal to reporters that Trump has complimented him on occasion.
“He was very complimentary about some of the economic things I had done,” stated Vice President Biden. “And he talked about — he thought I was leaving with a good record.”
As he gets ready to give the eulogy at former President Jimmy Carter’s state burial in Washington on Thursday, Biden also thought back on his friendship with Carter and their 2021 visit to Georgia.
“We had a conversation,” Biden claimed. Both my predecessor and my successor were not well-liked by him. He was never overtly hostile, though. “However, he was simply extremely encouraging.”
Regarding his plans for the future of the presidential library, Biden stated that he is unsure of the exact location at this time, but that Scranton, Pennsylvania, his hometown, is out of the running. He would prefer that it stay in Delaware, but he didn’t completely dismiss Penn as an option.
