With just days left in Joe Biden’s term, the president is reflecting on his decades-long career in public office and what he believes should be his final acts before Donald Trump replaces him in the White House. In a wide-ranging interview with USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page, the outgoing commander-in-chief weighed in on everything from preemptive pardons for Trump’s political enemies to his belief that he could’ve beat Trump a second time.
“It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,” Biden said when asked whether he could’ve won the November election, citing polling data he read. He quickly conceded, however, that he might not have had the mental stamina to last a second term.
“[W]hen Trump was running again for reelection, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him,” Biden said of his 2020 run. “But I also wasn’t looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old. And so I did talk about passing the baton.”
Could he have fulfilled another four years in the White House had he been reelected in 2024? “I don’t know,” Biden said. “Who the hell knows?”
A July analysis from presidential scholar Martha Joynt Kumar found that Biden gave fewer sitdown interviews and press conferences than any of the last seven presidents at the same point in their respective first terms. That’s a big reason why Biden’s sole “exit interview” to print media quickly made the rounds on social media early Wednesday.
But some of Biden’s claims are largely dubious, including the eyebrow-raising assertion that he could have defeated Trump. After his disastrous June 27 debate against Trump, shockwaves of anxiety came from respected members of the Democratic Party. In the subsequent fallout, many pundits and journalists alike began calling on Biden to step aside and make room for a new Democratic nominee.
So it’s somewhat hard to believe Biden’s statement that polling supported his staying in the race. While it’s possible polling may have underestimated the Democrats’ support, the available evidence suggests that voters were ready to move on from him. In fact, in a poll conducted almost entirely before Biden dropped out of the race in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Gallup found that only 36% of Americans approved of the job Biden was doing as president, compared with 58% who disapproved.
More recently, in November, Jon Favreau, who was the head speechwriter for then-President Barack Obama, revealed on his “Pod Save America” podcast that internal polling from Biden’s team showed Trump winning 400 votes in the Electoral College if Biden remained in the race. That would have made for the largest electoral-vote victory since 1988.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming
Beyond a second, hypothetical matchup with the president-elect, Biden also told USA Today that he’s still mulling preemptive pardons for some of Trump’s sworn enemies, including former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a December report from Politico, which cited senior Democrats familiar with the ongoing discussions, Biden’s team is debating throwing a bone to some of the people whom Trump has publicly threatened with prosecution—a list that also includes Harris and Obama.
While Biden told USA Today that he practically begged Trump not to target these people, it’s unclear if his message fell on deaf ears.
“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 told Page. “[Trump] basically just listened.”
Meanwhile, on his rather impressive domestic legacy, Biden expressed optimism that he’d be remembered fondly.
“I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan how to restore the economy and reestablish America's leadership in the world,” Biden said. “That was my hope. I mean, you know, who knows? And I hope it records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind.”
Biden added that he hopes Americans will remember him as a president who took an economy that was “in disarray” and set it back on the right track “in terms of the new sort of rules of the road.”
This is true. During the end of his tenure, the nation is experiencing record-low unemployment and slowed inflation. The problem for Biden is that ahead of November, few Americans seemed to think the economy was in a good place. And now, looking forward, it seems that people are less bullish on the fact that Biden will be remembered positively—let alone as someone who restored America’s economy.
President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt on April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin.
According to a Gallup poll fielded in December, just over half of Americans (54%) believe that Biden will be remembered as a “below average” or “poor” president, compared with 19% who think he’ll have an “outstanding” or “above average” legacy.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a real exit interview if Biden didn’t mention his biggest dreams, fears, and hopes regarding a second Trump administration. Indeed, the specter of Trump looms large over Biden’s exit, especially since the president-elect has largely dominated the news cycle since his win in November.
And when asked what his greatest fear is for Trump’s second term, Biden didn’t hold back.
“On the economy, my single greatest fear is that he will try to, and maybe even succeed, in eliminating the elements of the climate law,” he said. “That he'll succeed in kicking back the restrictions on drug manufacturers. That he’ll cut programs and infrastructure.”
At least so far, many of these things seem likely under Trump. Let’s just hope some of his wildest Day 1 pledges don’t come to fruition.
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