President Joe Biden took a shot at Republican-led states in the final television interview of his presidency, saying they had “screwed up” their economies in recent years.
“We’ve invested more in red states than blue states… Red states really screwed up in terms of the way they handled their economy, and the way they handled manufacturing, and the way they handled access to supply chains,” Biden, a Democrat, told MSNBC‘s Lawrence O’Donnell when asked about his administration’s economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The White House and the Trump transition team have been contacted for comment via email.
Joe Biden delivers his farewell address from the Oval Office of the White House on January 15, 2025. Biden said that Republican-led states had “screwed up” their economies in recent years.
Mandel Ngan/Pool-Getty Images
Why It Matters
Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan less than two months after taking office in 2021 to help the United States recover from the pandemic after the legislation was passed by Congress along party lines. It came after President-elect Donald Trump‘s first administration approved more than $3 trillion in pandemic relief spending in 2020.
Republicans later blamed a surge in inflation on spending from the American Rescue Plan, citing economist Larry Summers’ warning that it would cause more inflation.
Inflation and the economy were top concerns in the 2024 election, helping to fuel Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
What To Know
Asked how he decided to forge ahead with the spending despite warnings from Summers and others, Biden said: “I looked at the practical need for us to instill some confidence in the American people. We can grow this economy. And one of the biggest pieces of that was to invest in America.”
He added that he was “absolutely convinced” that if the American people were given “half a shot,” they would “step up and get the job done.”
“Look what they did. They stepped up in every major endeavor. I never believed we couldn’t have a soft landing… inflation is down almost to 2 percent.”
Biden also acknowledged that he and his fellow Democrats had missed some opportunities to tout their accomplishments.
Asked by O’Donnell if he had considered signing the stimulus checks sent under the American Rescue Plan, as Trump had done with the checks sent during his administration, Biden said: “It did cross my mind… 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… that wasn’t a stupid thing for [Trump] 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.”
What People Are Saying
House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X on Wednesday that Biden’s legacy would “be defined by his many failures”, including “FUELING skyrocketing inflation through ‘Bidenomics.'”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNBC last week that stimulus spending “may have contributed a little bit to the inflation, but by and large, inflation was a supply-side phenomenon.”
What Happens Next
Biden leaves office on Monday when Trump will be sworn in for a second term.
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