Biden says he ‘would have beaten Trump’ but withdrew to unify Democrats

In an impromptu and at times contemplative back-and-forth with reporters Friday evening, President Joe Biden said he had no regrets about dropping his bid for re-election although he remained confident that he “would have beaten Trump, could have beaten Trump” if there had been no change at the top of the ticket.

The remarks, with just over a week left in Biden’s term, came after Biden gave prepared remarks touting job gains and underscoring the economic accomplishments he has boasted about throughout his term. But as reporters followed up with questions, Biden responded on an array of subjects, saying Facebook’s decision to stop fact-checking posts was irresponsible and brushing off a question about whether he had mulled pre-emptively pardoning himself, saying, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

But Biden’s detailed accounting of his rationale for stepping out of the presidential race in July – following a stumbling debate performance that sparked concerns about his age and prompted many Democrats to demand that he pass the baton – was especially notable.

“I thought it was important to unify the party,” Biden said when asked if he had any regrets. “Even though I thought I could win again, it was always better to unify the party. And I had the greatest honor in my life to be president United States, but I didn’t want to be one who caused a party that wasn’t unified to lose an election. And that’s why I stepped aside.”

Biden, 82, has made both direct and subtle efforts to defend his legacy in recent months, especially since President-elect Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5.

In the space of five months, Biden bowed to pressure to drop out of the presidential race, only to watch his party be swept from power a few months later. When he stepped aside in late July, he was at first hailed as a skilled leader who had steered the ship of state into calmer waters and then, in a rare act of selflessness, willingly surrendered power.

But after an election decided by voters dissatisfied with the economic status quo, Biden endured a new round of criticism from within his party for delaying his decision to withdraw, in a flash going from the man who saved the country from Trump to the man who enabled his resurgence.

Critics have blasted the administration and the Democratic Party for underestimating the toll of inflation that some voters, rightly or wrongly, believed was caused by Biden’s determination to pump too much money into the economy after the coronavirus pandemic. The White House has said the massive spending bills were necessary to pull the country out of an economic tailspin, but that justification did not resonate in November.

Biden said on Friday that when he stepped aside, he was confident that Harris could win a head-to-head matchup against Trump. He also said his vice president is “competent enough to run again” in four years, if she so chooses. Harris has not indicated whether she would seek the White House again or pursue any other elected office.

Addressing another hot-button issue, Biden also said he found it “shameful” that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, had ended its fact-checking program in the United States.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s decision to dismantle its U.S. fact-checking program on Tuesday in a move that was praised by many conservatives, including Trump, who saw it as an effort to correct what they have long seen as unjustified censorship.

“Telling the truth matters,” Biden said on Friday. “It’s just completely contrary to everything America’s about. We want to tell the truth. … And the idea that, you know, a billionaire can buy something and say, ‘By the way, from this point on, we’re not going to fact-check anything.’ And, you know, when you have millions of people reading, going online, reading this stuff … I think it’s really shameful.”

In a podcast interview with Joe Rogan posted Friday, Zuckerberg defended his decision, criticizing the Biden administration for what he said he felt were inappropriate efforts to censor social media posts related to the coronavirus vaccine.

In Biden’s remarks, he said his administration had powered the country’s economic resurgence by “fundamentally changing the economic policy of this country,” described his approach as a repudiation of trickle-down economics “that primarily benefited those at the very top.”

That progress, Biden said, will face another test with a new administration.

“Do we continue to grow the economy for the middle out and the bottom up as we have the past four years, or do we backslide to an economy, economic theory that benefits those at the very top?” Biden said.

“I believe the economy I’m leaving is the best in the world and stronger than ever for all Americans,” he added. “We’ll see what the next president does.”