President Joe Biden thinks he had the juice.
The outgoing president speculated that he would have beaten President-elect Donald Trump a second time had he stayed in the presidential race in 2024. In a wide-ranging interview with USA Today, Biden was adamant that he would have fared better than Vice President Kamala Harris but balked on whether he could have served for four more years.
"It's presumptuous to say that, but I think yes," Biden told the outlet when asked if he would have won in November. "When Trump was running again for reelection, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him."
Biden was less confident about making it through a second term. He said he considered "pass[ing] the baton" because he "wasn't looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old."
"Who the hell knows?" Biden said when questioned directly about whether he would have held his hypothetical presidency through 2028.
Elsewhere in the interview, Biden speculated about how his presidency would be remembered and advocated for what he viewed as the strengths of his administration.
"I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan how to restore the economy and reestablish America's leadership in the world," Biden said. "That was my hope. I mean, you know, who knows? And I hope it records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind."
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