AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
We're joined now by NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid, who's been watching the White House response to the southern California wildfires and so much more in President Biden's last days in office. Good morning, Asma.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So we just heard the latest on those horrific wildfires in Los Angeles. How is the White House responding, and how are disasters that are unfolding during a transition like this handled?
KHALID: Yeah. I mean, the president was actually supposed to be in Rome this weekend for a sort of final farewell diplomatic trip meeting with the Pope, but that trip was canceled because of the fires. And what we hear from the White House is that President Biden has been continuing to speak with local officials on the ground. Last week, when fires began erupting, he declared a major disaster declaration, which is something that allows the federal government to step in and provide help.
And he's been insisting that the federal government is going to stick around in California for as long as it takes. But as you alluded to, this is all happening at a big moment of political change here in Washington. This is Biden's final full week on the job, and Donald Trump will be taking over next week. Biden told reporters that he's praying the next administration will be focused on this.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We're briefing the opposition - the opposition - the incoming administration pn what they're going to have to do. Look, we have an awful lot of experience in this, unfortunately.
KHALID: And Ayesha, some of this relief will likely recover - recovery effort will likely require additional funding from Congress.
RASCOE: Opposition - what a Freudian slip there. That's interesting to hear the president's comments. It seems like he took some questions on Friday. He hasn't done that a whole lot since the November election, right?
KHALID: Yeah, I mean, in the weeks following Trump's victory, I will say, he hardly took any reporter questions. He has not yet held a traditional end-of-term press conference, the sort that, you know, a lot of former presidents have. But on Friday, he did take a number of questions. And in the evening, I will say, he had some really interesting moments. One in particular was when he said he did not think his decision to run for reelection led to Trump's victory. He said he thinks he could have beaten Trump.
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BIDEN: Even though I thought I could win again, I thought it was better to unify the party, and I had - it was the greatest honor in my life to be president of the United States, but I didn't want to be one who caused a party that wasn't unified to lose an election. And that's why I stepped aside.
KHALID: And Ayesha, I think these are really interesting insights into how just the president is thinking about his own legacy. He gave a similar answer in an interview that published last week in USA Today. I will say it is also somewhat a bewildering answer to those of us who cover politics, right? I mean, I'm sure you had seen so many polls that showed him deeply unpopular. And frankly, I think it seems to somewhat misinterpret the underlying support that the President-elect Donald Trump had from voters who were frustrated by things like immigration, the cost of living.
RASCOE: You mentioned this is Biden's final week on the job. What's he's doing in his last days in office?
KHALID: Yeah. Well, over the weekend, he awarded the Pope a Presidential Medal of Freedom. One thing we will be keeping an eye on, also, I will say, in the coming days is this possibility of preemptive pardons. This is something Biden was speaking to in actually that USA Today interview I mentioned, and he said it sort of depends on a variety of things. He hasn't really explained what exactly that'll mean. I think he's looking at some of the language he said that the President-elect Trump uses in the coming days.
From a policy perspective, on Friday, his administration announced that it's extending temporary legal status for nearly a million people from certain countries like Ukraine and Venezuela. This is a program that could be curtailed under Trump, and what we saw the Biden administration do just last week appears like an effort to provide some extended temporary protection to those folks.
And then Biden also has a couple of farewell speeches planned. The first one on Monday is that he'll be giving a foreign policy address at the state department. And, Ayesha, this is sort of a full-circle moment for the president. Four years ago, when he entered the Oval Office, he made a trip to the state department to deliver a speech on America's place in the world. He's going to be talking now on Monday about the work that he's done to strengthen alliances. And you know this. I mean, Biden is someone who has spent 50-plus years in public office. Many of those years were involved in foreign relations.
And I will say, some of this is about trying to defend his legacy. It is a legacy that has certainly faced some criticism around the withdrawal from Afghanistan to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. And he has been criticized, certainly by Republicans, but frankly, even at moments from some Democrats in his own party, about how he has navigated these challenges. And then lastly, on Wednesday night, Ayesha, he'll be giving a farewell speech to the nation from the Oval Office. It will be likely one of his final moments to say goodbye to the public.
RASCOE: That's NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid. Thank you, Asma.
KHALID: Always good to speak with you. Thank you.
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