Just days before leaving office, United States President Joe Biden has said he may have beaten President-elect Donald Trump if he had chosen to stay in the presidential race.
In the sit-down interview with USA Today, the outgoing president revealed his biggest regrets, hopes for his legacy, and worries about the impending Trump presidency.
Here are five key takeaways from the interview.
On believing he could have beaten Donald Trump
Biden said that — had he not been replaced by vice president Kamala Harris as the Democrat's presidential nominee — he might have beaten Trump in the November poll.
"It's presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, based on polling," the 82-year-old said. "I really thought I had the best chance of beating him."
It's unclear what polling he was referring to.
When asked whether he would have had the stamina to stay in office for another four years, Biden replied: "I wasn't looking to be president when I was 85 years old."
Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July last year after . He subsequently endorsed Harris, who then lost to Trump, only securing 226 Electoral College votes to Trump's 295.
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On his greatest fears for the Trump presidency
One of Biden's biggest worries about the Trump presidency is what the Republican leader will do to his signature piece of climate legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act signed in 2022.
The Inflation Reduction Act was the biggest climate package in US history and was not only aimed at cutting domestic greenhouse gas emissions but also reducing the government budget deficit and lowering prescription drug prices.
"On the economy, my single greatest fear is that he will try to, and maybe even succeed, in eliminating the elements of the climate law, that he'll succeed in kicking back the restrictions on drug manufacturers, that he'll cut programs and infrastructure," Biden said.
However, Trump would have "a problem" if he attempted to roll back the popular set of policies, Biden argued.
"There's already several very conservative members of his delegation in the United States Senate and House who said, 'Don't block the plan in my state. Don't block A, B, C, or D plan. They're going to invest $3 billion to build a factory here.'"
"I don’t know how he comes along and gets rid of these investments," Biden added.
On pardoning his son Hunter
In December, saying he believed his son was "selectively and unfairly prosecuted" for tax and firearm-related charges.
The president, who had formerly pledged to stay out of the said he hoped the move doesn't set a precedent for future presidents.
"I meant what I said when I was asked whether I was going to pardon my son. But then I found out two factors."
"Number one: that he had paid all his taxes. He paid them late. He was fighting a drug problem. And he beat it. He's been square and sober for almost six years now."
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A judge in the case had previously ruled that late payment of the taxes was "irrelevant to (Hunter Biden's) state of mind at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes", a CNN fact-check noted.
"Then the second thing I found out was that on this purchasing a gun, at the time, you have to sign a form if you're under the influence of anything. Well, I don't even know whether they got straight on the signing of the form. But the point was, no one's ever been tried on that. Nobody."
The CNN fact-check also said that, among other reasons, this claim was questionable because the firearm background check form does not ask this specific question and his son's legal team had only argued that no-one in the state of Delaware, not the entire country, had been prosecuted for such charges.
On regrets from his time as president
When asked about anything he regretted being unable to do while president, Biden mentioned not getting "projects in the ground quicker".
"We are in a situation where I think that we would've been a hell of a lot better off had we been able to go much harder at getting some of these projects in the ground quicker," he said.
He said there was a disconnect between the bills he saw pass Congress and the immediate impact such legislation had on people's lives.
"We passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Hooray, hooray. That sounds great, right?" Biden said.
"But it didn't have any immediate impact on people's lives."
"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."
But he wished he had taken more credit and let Americans know that "the government did this for you".
On his legacy
Reflecting on his four years in the White House, Biden hoped his legacy would be one of "honesty and integrity".
"I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan [for] how to restore the economy and reestablish America's leadership in the world," he said. "That was my hope."
"I hope it records that I did it with honesty and integrity and that I said what was on my mind."
"I look at this in terms of our grandkids. What we're doing now, it's got a profound impact, a lasting impact, now on the prospects for our grandkids, what kind of life they're going to live, what kind of country they're going to live in."
He also praised his foreign policy and . "I thought it was critically important to re-establish America's pre-eminence in foreign policy."
"I re-established our alliances because they're our safety. And I diminished the direct conflict with major adversaries."
