Biden says intends to run again, will decide early next year

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he expects to decide early next year whether he will seek re-election for another four-year term.

Biden repeated that he intends to run for office again but that it was a family decision and he would seek their consultation over the holidays.

"I am a great respecter of fate," Biden told reporters at a news conference.

Buoyed by midterm elections in which his fellow Democrats fared better than expected, Biden also said that Election Day on Tuesday was good for democracy but the results showed that Americans remained frustrated.

"It was a good day, I think, for democracy," Biden told reporters at the White House.

White House officials have expressed a sense of vindication that Democrats did better than expected after Biden focused his campaign pitch largely on preventing threats to U.S. democracy, securing abortion rights and extolling his economic policies.

Republicans made modest gains in U.S. midterm elections and are likely to take control of the House of Representatives, but control of the Senate hinges on three races that remained too close to call on Wednesday afternoon.

Biden said he was prepared to work with Republicans.

"The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans be prepared to work with me as well," he said.

Biden said he would veto efforts to pass a national ban on abortion and opposed tax cuts for the wealthy, two policy proposals Republicans may pursue.

He said when he returns from a trip to Asia he would invite Democratic and Republican leaders to the White House to discuss priorities going forward.

'REAL PROBLEMS'

Biden also said that Russia's withdrawal from the strategic Ukrainian city of Kherson showed Moscow has "real problems" in the war.

"It's evidence of the fact that they have some real problems, Russia, the Russian military," Biden told reporters in Washington.

Biden spoke after midterm elections in which his Democratic Party looked set to narrowly lose control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans, some of whom have vowed to review US military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

"In the area of foreign policy I hope we'll continue this bipartisan approach of confronting Russia's aggression in Ukraine," Biden added.

Russia ordered its troops to withdraw from Kherson in a major blow to its invasion amid a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Biden added he expects U.S. aid to Ukraine to continue without interruption despite skepticism expressed by Republicans who appear poised to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"That is my expectation," Biden said, when asked if U.S. aid to Ukraine would continue uninterrupted.

"And by the way, we've not given Ukraine a blank check," Biden said, noting Washington had refused to provide some military equipment or assistance requested by Ukrainian leaders, including U.S. aircraft.

CHINA RELATIONS

Biden also said that he hoped to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the two powers' "red lines" when they gather next week for a summit in Bali.

"What I want to do with him when we talk is lay out what kind of -- what each of our red lines are," Biden told the news conference following US midterm elections.

Biden said he sought to know "what he believes to be in the critical national interests of China, what I know to be the critical interests of the United States, and to determine whether or not they conflict with one another."

If there are conflicts, Biden said he hoped to work together on "how to work it out."

Biden and Xi have spoken virtually as presidents but have not met in person, with the Chinese leader until recently putting off international travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Xi heads to the Indonesian resort island fresh from securing a historic third term from his Communist Party, while Biden is flying out following a surprisingly strong showing by his Democrats in midterm elections.

The two leaders know each other unusually well for two presidents, with Biden in 2011 traveling to China to spend time with Xi when they were both vice presidents.

Eleven years later, tension has risen sharply over Taiwan with the Biden administration warning that China has stepped up its timeline to seize the self-governing democracy that it claims as part of its territory.

BIDEN SUPPORT ON TAIWAN

Biden on three occasions has indicated that he is ready to commit the US military to defend Taiwan, a break with longstanding policy that was walked back each time by the White House.

Biden insisted Wednesday there was no change in the historic US stance of strategic ambiguity on whether Washington would use force in the event of a Chinese invasion.

"The Taiwan doctrine has not changed at all from the very beginning," Biden said, adding that he would discuss Taiwan but also trade and China's relationship with other countries.

US concerns about Taiwan have been thrown into stark relief by Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, an operation that had until recently been seen as a remote possibility.

Biden bluntly repeated US assessments that China has hesitated at supporting Russia materially, despite President Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing to meet Xi before the invasion.

"I don't think there's a lot of respect that China has for Russia or for Putin," Biden said.

"I don't think they look at that as a particular alliance. Matter of fact, they've been sort of keeping their distance a little bit."

Biden, like his predecessor Donald Trump, has identified China as the premier global competitor of the United States and promised to reorient US policy around the challenge.

But the Biden administration has also promised to work with China on common interests such as climate change.

US climate envoy John Kerry briefly met his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, marking a further thaw in tensions.

China said it would suspend climate dialogue, a key focus of Biden, in anger after an August visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who is second in line to the presidency.

ECONOMY

Biden said he believed the U.S. economy would have a soft landing and avert recession.

Biden told the news conference at the White House that he was also confident his administration could reduce inflation, but could not guarantee it.

"I am optimistic because we continue to grow, and at a rational pace. We're not anywhere near a recession right now, in terms of the growth, but I think we can have what most economists call a soft landing," Biden said.

MUSK

U.S. President Joe Biden also made remarks on Elon Musk, saying he thinks Twitter's top boss Musk's relationships with other countries are worthy of being looked at.

"I think that Elon Musk's cooperation and or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at," Biden said. "Whether he is doing anything inappropriate, I'm not suggesting that. I'm suggesting they're worth being looked at."

Biden responded to a question about whether he thinks Elon Musk is a threat to national security and if his acquisition of Twitter with help from a Saudi Arabian conglomerate should be investigated by the U.S. government.

Following Musk's takeover of Twitter, Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Company and the private office of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal jointly became the social media company's second-largest shareholder behind the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund owns a roughly 17% stake in Kingdom Holding Company, which is an investment firm owned by bin Talal.

The Washington Post newspaper reported last week that officials within the Treasury Department had contacted Twitter to "learn more about the structure of its new ownership and the confidential agreements Musk struck with his foreign investors."

At issue, the Post reported, are investments from bin Talal, a subsidiary of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, and Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange formerly headquartered in China, and whether their investments could be used as leverage to access personal user data.