7 Takeaways From Biden’s USA Today Interview

President Joe Biden gave a wide-ranging interview to USA Today on Jan. 5, just weeks before he will pass the torch to President-elect Donald Trump on Inauguration Day.

Biden sat down in the Oval Office with USA Today’s Washington Bureau chief Susan Page in what is his final print interview before the end of his administration in just under two weeks. He spoke about his concerns over the next Trump administration, how he wants to be remembered as president, potential preemptive pardons for his successor’s political foes, and his thoughts about pardoning his son Hunter.

Here are seven takeaways from the discussion.

1. Biden Says He Could Have Beaten Trump

After dropping out of the presidential race after a heavily scrutinized debate performance against Trump, Biden said he believes he still could have beaten the president-elect in a head-to-head race.

“It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, based on the polling,” Biden said.

According to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, many national polls leading up to the day Biden dropped out—July 21, 2024—had him trailing Trump by between 5 and 11 percent. Some other polls showed a closer race.

Biden passed the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, who quickly took the lead in many national and battleground state polls. Those leads narrowed in early October as Trump’s support surged nationwide.

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The president did express some doubt he would have had the vigor needed to serve another four years as president had he stayed in the race and managed to beat Trump.

“I don’t know,” Biden said about his physical and mental strength to lead another term as president.

“When Trump was running again for reelection, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him. 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. But I don’t know. Who the hell knows? So far, so good. But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”

2. Recalls Trump’s Visit to White House

Biden recounted the time he invited Trump to the White House after he won the November presidential election.

“I spent two hours with him,” Biden said. “He was very complimentary about some of the economic things I had done. … He thought I was leaving with a good record.”

Trump’s 2024 campaign focused on the impacts of Biden’s economic policies, particularly the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, and the American Rescue Plan. Trump and his surrogates blamed Biden for the rising inflation in the United States following the recession, linking the rates directly to those policies.

Page asked Biden if he potentially “paid too little attention early on to warnings about inflation with the American Rescue Plan or failed to recognize soon enough how much this was affecting so many Americans’ lives.”

The president denied any impact on inflation from his policies.

“I knew how much inflation was affecting their lives, but none of this had passed when inflation was at 9 percent,” Biden said. “I was told if I did it, we’d all have a catastrophe, have a recession. I never believed that.”

Inflation in the United States peaked at 9.1 percent in June 2022, more than a year after the American Rescue Plan was signed into law.

The president suggested that inflation was a global problem.

“I would argue that inflation was worldwide. It wasn’t just the United States,” Biden said. “We’re the only nation that really got it … under control by growing the economy. We didn’t diminish the economy.”

3. How He Wants to Be Remembered

While discussing the last four years in office, Biden outlined ways he wants to be remembered as president.

“I hope that my legacy is one that says I took an economy that was in disarray and set it on track to lead the world, in terms of the new sort of rules of the road,” he said.

“In foreign policy, I reestablished our alliances because they’re our safety. And I diminished the direct conflict with major adversaries.”

Biden made it a priority to pass wide-sweeping infrastructure reforms and climate investments during his administration, among many promises he made during his 2020 campaign.

Two pieces of legislation—the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and the CHIPS and Science Act—largely accomplished that goal for Biden, but he admitted that many of the impacts from those laws will take years to come to fruition.

“We passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Hooray, hooray. That sounds great, right? Historians will talk about [how] great the impact was, but it didn’t have any immediate impact on people’s lives,” Biden said.

“But guess what? There’s 66,000 projects already signed out there. Some of them are billion-dollar bridges. There are things that are going to create enormous wealth and work out there, but it takes time.”

4. Concerns About Impact of Trump’s Policies

When asked about any concerns he has for Trump’s second administration, Biden described efforts the president-elect may take to reverse some of the climate policies from the Inflation Reduction Act. In doing so, Biden said that some of Trump’s proposed economic moves—including tax cuts and increased tariffs on foreign imports—could worsen the U.S. economy.

“I don’t know how he comes along and gets rid of these [climate] investments. Now I think he could screw them up by insisting on focusing on more tax cuts for the wealthy. He’s talking about a $5 trillion new tax cut,” Biden said. “I think if he moves on the tax cuts of $5 trillion …  if he moves on dealing with increasing tariffs across the board, all they are is increasing cost of consumers in America.”

Biden suggested that if Trump decides to move away from major programs like the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, and the Inflation Reduction Act, he will “hurt himself, hurt the economy.”

His greatest fear, he said, is that Trump will eliminate his climate policies, reverse restrictions on drug manufacturers, and cut infrastructure programs. He also said Trump is “going to have a hard time undoing a lot.”

5. Hopes Hunter’s Pardon Won’t Set Precedent

After his son Hunter Biden was convicted last summer of lying about drug use on a federal gun application form, the president said at the time he would not pardon him for any crimes, including the tax evasion charges in the California-based criminal case, which ended in a guilty plea.

Page asked whether he has any concerns that the pardon may set a precedent for future presidents or may be open to abuse.

“I hope not,” Biden said, clarifying that he meant what he had said when he initially denied the possibility of pardoning his son.

Two factors changed his mind, he said.

The president said that his son paid back all the tax he previously owed and that no one had ever been tried on the law that he broke when he lied about his drug use when filling out the federal gun application form in 2018.

“He was fighting a drug problem,” Biden said of his son, who is 54. “And he beat it. He’s been square and sober for almost six years now.”

6. Undecided on Pardons for Trump Foes

During Trump’s visit to the White House following the election, Biden said he also told the president-elect not to “settle scores” with any of his political enemies—such as former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, Anthony Fauci, or others—once Trump takes office again.

“I was very straightforward with Trump when he got elected,” Biden said. “I tried to make it clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores.”

Biden said Trump did not say what he would do in that regard.

“He didn’t say, ‘No, I’m going to…’ You know. He didn’t reinforce it. He just basically listened,” Biden said.

Biden and several senior White House aides have reportedly discussed issuing possible preemptive pardons for people they fear Trump may target for prosecutions or criminal investigations. The issue could raise legal concerns, however, due to preemptively pardoning people who have yet to be charged with any crimes.

Biden said he was still undecided on the topic.

7. Location of Presidential Library

At the end of the interview, Biden said he is narrowing down the location of his presidential library. He said there is an ongoing discussion of either setting it up at the University of Delaware, which houses the Biden School of Public Policy, or at another location.

He said Wilmington, Delaware, wants him to put the Biden library inside the city, and the University of Pennsylvania, the home of the Biden School of Foreign Policy, has also expressed interest.

“I’ve talked to former presidents. Apparently, building the library is a gigantic undertaking. And so I haven’t made that decision yet,” Biden said.

Melanie Sun contributed to this report.