President Biden claims he could have defeated rival Donald Trump in the 2024 election, but admits he may not have survived another four years in the Oval Office.
in USA Today interview In the magazine, published Wednesday, the 82-year-old Biden said, perhaps too proudly to say so, that he was confident he could emerge victorious in a rematch against the Republican candidate.
“It's presumptuous to say that, but based on the polls, I think that's the case…” the oldest president in history began, but during a rapid-fire line of questioning, USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Paige interrupted.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Biden never spoke to veteran pollster John Anzalone during the 2024 campaign, and poll buff John Anzalone wrote a memo to his aides. It is said that he only told them.
In his writing for the interview, Page said the president had index cards on his desk filled with “talking points and statistics” that he “only looked through once.”
“Do you think you had the energy to serve as president for another four years?” she asked.
“I don't know. That's why I thought that when I first announced it, talking to Barack. [Obama] I said I think I'm that person,” Biden responded.
“I didn't mean to chase you. [son] Beau is dead – I'm not joking, he really is,” he continued. “And when Trump ran for re-election again, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him.
“But I didn't think I'd be president when I was 85 or 86. So I talked about passing the baton. But I don't know. Who knows? So far. It's going well. But who knows what I'll be like when I'm 86?'' Biden added.
Biden has held the fewest press conferences of any commander-in-chief since at least President Ronald Reagan, but in a roundtable discussion with USA Today he discussed his aborted re-election effort and the lame He divulged many fresh details about the president's plans for his final days. -Duckterm and his legacy.
Democrats removed Biden from their list of potential candidates in a coup in July following a disastrous June 27 debate against Trump.
The sitting lawmaker spoke in a slurred voice throughout the forum, at times breaking into sentences such as “We finally won Medicare.”
Post-debate polls showed Trump with a significant lead over Biden, but Democratic alternatives are ready to take on the Republican nominee, including Vice President Kamala Harris doesn't seem to exist.
Internally, the situation was even more dire.
A few weeks after the debate, Biden's pollsters and senior advisers met with Senate Democrats at campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C.
According to to the new york timesSen. Jack Reed (D-RI) called for the president to undergo cognitive testing and publicly release the results to prove his mental health for another four years.
Some medical experts who specialize in treating Parkinson's disease even believed that Biden's slow, “shuffling” gait displayed some of the “classic features of neurodegeneration.” This is because the president's stumbling in words is becoming more regular.
The Times reported in August that internal polling further showed a shift toward Trump among young voters, a key demographic for Democrats.
Congressional Democrats, including Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and deep-pocketed donors like Hollywood star George Clooney immediately began calling for Biden to step down, and on July 21, Biden I resigned.
Harris, 60, came out on top with Biden's support, avoiding an unprecedented “mini-primary” or in-house battle at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
Veep lost all seven key battleground states – Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada – to Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20th.
Biden also revealed Wednesday that he is still considering pardoning potential targets of the second Trump administration, including former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and former White House coronavirus czar Dr. Anthony Fauci. I made it.
“It depends a little bit on who he puts in what position,” the 46th president explained. “I was very candid with Trump when he was elected. I immediately invited him to the White House. I spent two hours with him. We talked about economic matters and he was very complimentary. He talked about things like he thought I would quit with good grades. I tried to make it clear that I didn't have to and that I would try to come back and settle the score. was counterintuitive to his interests.
“So has he answered what he's going to do?” Page asked.
“Well, he didn't. But he didn't say, 'No, I'm going to…'” He didn't strengthen it. He basically just listened,” Biden responded, later saying he had “not yet decided” whether to grant pre-emptive pardons to Cheney and Fauci.
The president has already announced a full pardon for his son Hunter for tax and gun felonies, as well as crimes that may have been committed between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2024.
“If that's the case, I'm sure there are some who don't want to say their names. I'll tell you off the record,” he added, speaking later somewhat incoherently. “But there are other parties that we're following to determine that, fixing some of it, fixing differences in powder cocaine, things like that.”
Asked about his legacy, Biden demurred.
“Historians will talk about the following.” [how] The impact was big, but it wasn't [have] “It can have a direct impact on people's lives,” he assessed. “I think we would have been better off if we had been more diligent in getting some of these projects into action sooner.
Biden also claimed that he “meant it” when he said several times before the election (prior to last month's sweeping pardon announcement) that he would not pardon his son, but later said he was “serious” when he said he would not pardon his son. He claimed that the “factor” had been clarified. .
“Number one, he paid all his taxes. He paid them late,” the president claimed, meaning Hunter Biden has already paid off all of his 2021 tax arrears. It refers to that.
“And the next thing you know, in those days when you bought a gun, if you were under the influence of anything, you had to sign a form. Well, did they sign the form? I don't even know. But the point is, no one has ever been tried for that. No one,” he also falsely claimed.
Rapper Kodak Black is one of several defendants sentenced to prison for providing false information on gun purchase applications, including writing the wrong Social Security number on a firearm application. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison for the crime.
