Biden insists Kamala Harris could have beaten Trump and is left stunned by reporter asking if he'd 'pardon himself'

President Joe Biden finally took questions in an extended format from reporters Friday evening, revealing that he thinks both he and Kamala Harris could have beaten Trump. 

The surprise back-and-forth came after Biden came out to tout another month of job growth and low inflation. He ended up riffing on the election, Ukraine, pardons, and Trump – though he misheard one question completely and gave an answer about something else.

Biden, 82, once again reflected on his fateful decision to step back from reelection, after addressing it in a USA Today interview.

'I think I would have beaten Trump – could have beaten Trump,' he said, days before Trump is set to return to power. 'And I think that Kamala could have beaten Trump, would have beaten Trump. It wasn't about – I thought it was important to unify the party,' he said.

He failed to specify why, if Harris might have beaten Trump, she didn't. But he did allow that he feared a divided party might lose if he stayed on.

The party fractured after his July debate disaster over whether he would be able to prevail while facing record low approval numbers.

'I thought I could win again, thought it was better to unify the party, and I was 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,' he said. 'That's why I stepped aside. But I was confident she could win.'

As it turned out, Trump beat Harris in all seven swing states and won the popular vote, as he reminded a New York judge Friday on a day he was sentenced of 34 felony counts in his hush money case. 

Pressed on whether Harris should run again, Biden responded with less than a push to get in the race: 'I think it's a decision she should make. I think she's competent to run again in four years. That'd be a decision for her to make,' Biden said, during a week that featured awkward encounters at Jimmy Carter's memorial service.

Biden appeared flummoxed when a reporter asked if he would consider pardoning himself. There are debates among scholars about whether a self-pardon is even possible.

But Biden has considered pardons for other officials who might be targeted by Donald Trump. Trump continues to call special counsel Jack Smith 'deranged,' and has said former Rep. Liz Cheney, who was vice chair of the January 6 Committee, belongs in jail.

'For myself? What would I pardon myself for?' Biden said, stunned. 'No I have no contemplation of pardoning myself for anything. I didn’t do anything wrong,' he said.

That admission – that pardons are for people who did something wrong – could complicate the issue of 'preemptive pardons' to head off Trump. Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, of any gun or tax crimes, issuing a statement that mentioned political attacks meant to hurt him and his battles with addiction.

During one awkward moment, a reporter asked Biden about the latest developments on 'Havana syndrome,' and whether a foreign actor was responsible for mysterious ailments of U.S. diplomats.

Instead, he spoke about any foreign nexis to the ISIS-influenced U.S. attacker who killed 14 people in New Orleans and was shot by police. 

Then the reporter apologized and steered him to the correct topic, Biden said he didn't want to comment.

He also blasted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who appears to be moving in MAGA's direction and announced a new move away from fact-checking and moderation and toward a 'community notes' system to deal with misinformation on the platform.

The 'whole idea of walking away from facts checking as well as not reporting anything having to do with discrimination,' Biden vented. 

'It's just completely contrary to everything America is about.'

Then he went after Trump ally Elon Musk and the 'idea that, you know, a billionaire can buy something and say, by the way, from this point on, we're not gonna, we're not gonna fact check anything. That appeared to be a reference to X, the former Twitter platform.

Biden didn't rule out other pardons or commutations, indicating it was up to what Trump says in the coming days in the coming days – even though Trump has given him plenty to consider over the past year. 

'It depends on some of the language and expectations that Trump broadcast in the last couple days here as to what he's going to do,' Biden said. 'The idea that he would punish people for not adhering to what he thinks should be policies related to his well being is outrageous, but there's still consideration of some folks nothing, but no decision,' he said.

Despite mostly avoiding questions from the press for weeks including on foreign trips, Biden isn't ready to totally step back from the limelight.

He was asked if he would stay engaged or more follow the George W. Bush model of being 'out of sight, out of mind.'

Biden chuckled.  'I'm not going to be out of sight, out of mind,' he said.

Before the back-and-forth with the press, Biden touted his economic legacy, as Trump prepares to try to undo it with his call for permenent extension of big tax cuts. 

'We did it by fundamentally changing the economic policy of this country after decades of trickle down economics have primarily benefited those at the very top. Kamala and I and our administration have written a new playbook that's growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, that benefits everyone. The new playbook is working, but in ten days, our administration will end, and the new administration will begin,' he said.