Joe Biden gave his final TV sitdown interview to MSNBC‘s Lawrence O’Donnell this evening, as the outgoing president reflected on his accomplishments, including the recent ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas.
But with polls showing him leaving with a low approval ratings, Biden also acknowledged political shortcomings.
O”Donnell asked him, “You said it was stupid, as a joke, that you didn’t sign the checks that went out to people from your administration when you were giving Covid help after Donald Trump put his name on the checks that went out during his administration… Did it cross your mind to put your name on the checks?”
Biden said, “The mistake we made was, I think I made, was not getting our allies to acknowledge that the Democrats did this.”
He added, “I’m not a very good huckster. I mean, and that — it wasn’t a stupid thing for him to do. It helped him a lot. And it undermined our ability to convince people that we were the ones that were getting this to them.
“…Ironically, I almost spent too much time on the policy and not enough time on the politics, because, I mean, you have some senators in Congress, Democratic senators in Congress saying, ‘Well, you know, Joe Biden did this.’ Let people know who was responsible for this happening. But it just seems, I know it sounds so stupid to say it, almost bad taste.”
