President Biden gave his final television interview as commander in chief on Thursday, in which he denied allegations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed a ceasefire agreement with Hamas to support President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden rambled and meandered for much of the sit-in, but seemed noticeably confident in his answer when MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell laid out his theory of a ceasefire.
“No, I don't think it's to help.” [sic] Our campaign versus Trump,” the outgoing president said. “I don't think that's his calculation.”
Biden has refused to credit President Trump for striking a deal expected to free dozens of hostages held by Hamas, but said the president-elect's “national security officials” He admitted that he was brought in before the agreement was signed.
In a rare interview, O'Donnell asked Biden to reflect on some of his “accomplishments” and failures in the White House.
Biden suggested it might have been politically costly not to sign his name on coronavirus relief checks, as Trump famously did.
“I think the mistake we made was not having our allies acknowledge what the Democrats did.”
“I'm not a very good fraudster,” Biden insisted, acknowledging that Trump's putting his name on the stimulus checks “wasn't a stupid thing for him to do.”
“I spent almost too much time on policy and not enough time on politics,” the president claimed.
Biden, who has given fewer press conferences and media interviews than any president in modern history, was not asked about his controversial decision to pardon his disgraced son Hunter during Thursday's friendly sit-down.
But Biden mentioned Hunter's name when asked what he would say to his late son Beau as he prepares to leave office.
“Beau and Hunter have always trusted my instincts,'' Biden responded, before going on to talk about his beginnings as a politician and his belief that “all politics is personal.'' I blurted out about it.
“The skiing is pretty good here,” the president acknowledged at the end of his remarks.
