KEITH: He was asked what he would say to Americans who don't want him to run, and he said, watch me. And I don't feel in any a hurry one way or another.

I think everybody wants me to run, but we're going to have discussions about it. And this is ultimately a family decision. Here's what he said.īIDEN: My judgment of running when I announce, if I - my intention is that I run again. But he also said, as he has before, that he respects fate and that he has to have a family conversation, one that he expects will happen sometime between Thanksgiving and the new year. He reiterated that he plans to run and that the midterms didn't affect that. KEITH: Yeah, he was asked a couple of times. Do these midterms make that even more likely now? Like, what did he say about that? KEITH: And that sounded to me like a president who, if his party doesn't have control of Congress, will take a political foil as a consolation prize.ĬHANG: Well, Biden has said in the past that he does intend to run for president in 2024. All I can do is continue to try to make life better for the American people. I mean, it's - but, you know, look I can't control what they're going to do. Asked about potential investigations, including into his son, Hunter, Biden implied that Republicans could end up overreaching.īIDEN: I think the American people will look at all of that for what it is. You and I have both covered divided government, you know, and things like just keeping the lights on and keeping the government funded can be challenge enough. But with divided government, ambitions generally get scaled back. KEITH: If Republicans do end up winning control of the Senate, that could put the brakes on Biden's efforts to get judges confirmed. And he was relatively dismissive of the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, saying that he hadn't had much need to interact with him before. In not so many words, he seemed to be saying that if Congress passed nothing else, he would still consider it a success to implement what has already been passed in the first two years. He was asked about his agenda going forward, and he said that he would veto any attempts to reverse the legislation that he and Democrats passed in the first two years and that he would not accept any cuts to Medicare or Social Security. When asked how he would change or what he would change about his governing going forward, he said he wouldn't change a thing.ĬHANG: But, really, isn't it a little soon to be doing a victory lap here? Like, we don't even know how this is all going to shake out yet or how his agenda will be affected by the results, right? But I have to say, he was also unapologetic. And to that end, he plans to invite leaders over to the White House later this month. But he said that the message that he took from the election was that the American people want him to work together with Congress. As we know, control of both the House and the Senate are still up in the air. KEITH: Well, this wasn't a thumpin' or a shellacking, and he avoided adding any new adjectives to the political lexicon.

Can you tell us, like, how did President Biden describe this election? So in recent history, presidents who do this day-after-the-Election-Day press conference, they usually or they have used words like shellacking or thumpin' to describe what happened to their party in the midterms. And here to give us more details is NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith. And I think it was a good day for America.ĬHANG: It was a rare formal press conference for President Biden. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: It was a good day, I think, for democracy. Today, he took a bit of a victory lap at the White House.

But last night, things went surprisingly well for Democrats and for President Biden. Midterms are traditionally tough for the party in power, especially for presidents whose popularity ratings are not that great.

Bidens press conf