In an interview published Wednesday, Biden said he was “very blunt with Trump” about the possible pardons during their meeting in the Oval Office shortly after the November election.
“I tried to make it clear that it wasn’t necessary and it wasn’t in his interest to go back and try to settle the score,” Biden said, adding that Trump didn’t push back but “just listened.”
Biden said his final decision will depend on who Trump chooses for his cabinet.
In the same meeting, Biden said that Trump “praised” his economic performance.
“He (Trump) thought I was leaving with a good record,” the Democrat said.
The interview with USA Today is the only away interview Biden has given to a print publication.
Media access to Biden is tightly controlled by the White House — and the president has held no press conferences since dropping out of the race on July 21.
In the interview, the outgoing president also defended himself the full and unconditional pardon he issued to his son Hunter Biden, who faced conviction on two felony charges – tax evasion and illegal gun possession – despite repeatedly insisting he would not do so.
Biden, who first came to Capitol Hill in 1972 as a U.S. senator, drew criticism from within his own party for his apparent reluctance to withdraw from the presidential race amid concerns about his age and mental acuity.
Speaking to USA Today, Biden said that “based on the polls” he believed he would have won, but acknowledged that his age could have affected his tenure.
“When Trump ran for re-election, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him. But I also didn’t want to be president when I was 85, 86 years old,” Biden said. “But I don’t know. Who the hell does?”
After Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump, senior members of the Democratic Party, such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said that Democrats perhaps it would have been better in the election if Biden had dropped out of the race earlier.
