President Biden speaks in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room in February.
Photo: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images
on tuesday, time The magazine published the lengthy interview with President Biden nearly two months after his interview with Donald Trump, part of a series of interviews the president has granted in recent days following criticism that he is eschewing traditional sit-down interviews with mainstream media. timeThe president has spoken recently with Yahoo Finance and CNN’s Erin Burnett, and he continues to engage with less conventional interlocutors like Howard Stern (though he continues to ignore the New York Times). Times. ) time During the conversation last month, topics included the Gaza conflict, Jan. 6 and Biden’s age. Here are some notable moments.
Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s motives as Israel and Hamas remain at war, Biden initially avoided answering. But he seemed to suggest that the common perception that Netanyahu wants to prolong the war to ensure his political survival is not unfounded. “I’m not going to comment on that. There are good reasons for people to draw that conclusion,” Biden said.
Biden said he and Netanyahu do not see eye to eye on what the post-war situation in Gaza should be. “We need a two-state solution, a transition to a two-state solution. That’s where Bibi Netanyahu and I disagree the most,” he said.
Biden also said he does not believe Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war, as suggested by the International Criminal Court, which is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli and Hamas officials. Biden said he thinks some of Israel’s actions are inappropriate. He likened the situation to America’s long occupation of Afghanistan and advised Israel to learn from that example. “Don’t repeat the mistakes that we made, and I think they are making the same mistakes,” he said.
time They tried to get the president to officially answer what the Biden administration would do if China made good on its threats to invade Taiwan. Asked how U.S. forces would be used in such a situation, the president replied, “It depends.”
The magazine went on to press Biden on whether he would send in military forces if necessary, to which Biden replied, “I wouldn’t rule out using U.S. military power. There’s a difference between deploying ground forces, air power, naval power, etc.”
Biden was later asked whether that would include firing from bases in Japan and the Philippines, but did not provide further details. “I can’t get into that, and of course you’d criticize me if I did,” he said.
The conversation then turned to one of Biden’s biggest weaknesses: his age. The president turned 81 in November and will be 86 by the end of his second term. (Trump turns 78 later this month.) Biden said he hadn’t considered not running for a second term and expressed confidence he could do the job quite aggressively. “I can do it better than anybody you know. You’re watching me. You can win with me,” Biden said.
Asked what he would say to American voters concerned about his age, Biden replied: “Look at me. Name me a president who’s accomplished as much as I’ve accomplished in my three and a half years in office.”
Biden offered a familiar anecdote from his attendance at the G7 summit in Britain in 2021. “America is back,” he told the assembled leaders, to which French President Emmanuel Macron quipped, “For how long?” He said world leaders had expressed concern about a possible Trump victory in 2024.
“I’ve never been to a major international conference that a world leader didn’t call me in before the conference was over and say, ‘He can’t beat him. We can’t let him win.’ I’ve been to more conferences in the last three and a half years than most presidents,” Biden said.
He continued: “My democracy is at stake and their democracy is at stake. My democracy is at stake. So give me any world leader other than Orban or Putin who thinks Trump should be the world leader of the United States.”
