He told the Associated Press the "need for mental health in America has skyrocketed".

Mr Biden said he wanted Americans to "be confident. Because I am confident."

The president's popularity has plunged as November elections loom that will decide which party controls Congress.

"People are really, really down," Mr Biden told the news agency in a half-hour interview from the Oval Office on Thursday.

"They're really down. Their need for mental health in America has skyrocketed because people have seen everything upset.

"Everything they counted on upset. But most of it's a consequence of, of, of what's happening, what happened is a consequence of the, the Covid crisis.

“I fully understand why the average voter out there is just confused and upset and worried,” Biden said.

In the midst of many crises, Biden added: “We have a little thing called climate change going on and it’s having profound impacts.” He noted the “tundra melting” and heating of the polar ice caps, and the record flooding that prompted closures and huge damage this week at Yellowstone national park.

Just 10 US states could save 3.7 million lives worldwide by cutting their emissions to net zero.



“It’s totally understandable that [people] are worried because they look around and see, ‘My God, everything is changing,’” he said.

In the interview, Biden acknowledged that standing up to Russia with economic sanctions and billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as the Russian invasion persists, came with costs for the nation – and his presidency.

“There was going to be a price to pay” for helping Ukraine, Biden said. But he argued that “the option of doing nothing was worse”.

Had the US chosen isolationism over internationalism, it could have put the entire liberal world order at risk, opening the door to a wider invasion of Europe, Biden said. The response to Russia also served as a clear warning to China and North Korea, he added.

Advertisement

But with the war exacerbating prices, there are signs that Americans are becoming less supportive of punishing Russia if it comes at an economic cost to their pocketbook.

“I’m the president of the United States,” he said. “It’s not about my political survival. It’s about what’s best for the country.”

His presidency has had some key victories. Biden touted his 2021 legislative achievements – a nearly $2tn coronavirus stimulus package and a bipartisan infrastructure law – and raised the prospect that there was more to come after his agenda stalled on Capitol Hill.

Among the proposals he said had enough support in the Senate he named plans to lower the cost of prescription drugs, reduce energy costs, improve supply-chain issues related to semiconductors, and impose a 15% minimum tax on corporations and tax hikes on the “super wealthy”.

Biden pushed back on any suggestion that the coronavirus stimulus plan passed in the early days of his presidency contributed to inflation, despite attacks from Republicans and growing agreement among economists and his own treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, that it did, at least to some degree.

“You could argue whether it had a marginal, minor impact on inflation,” Biden said of the American Rescue Plan. “I don’t think it did.”

Biden also downplayed fears of a recession. “First of all, it’s not inevitable,” he said. “Secondly, we’re in a stronger position than any nation in the world to overcome this inflation.”