Biden on '60 Minutes': 'The pandemic is over'

President Joe Biden said “the pandemic is over” in discussing Covid during an interview that aired Sunday evening on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

“The pandemic is over,” the president told Scott Pelley. “We still have a problem with Covid. We’re still doing a lot of work on it ... but the pandemic is over. if you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing.”

Despite Biden’s statement, Covid has continued to exact a toll in the United States and around the world. The John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center lists more than 2 million Covid cases in the country in the last 28 days, with hundreds dying from the disease every day.

Biden’s statement was the most definite one about the pandemic he has made since assuming the presidency in January 2021. He was less definitive when asked whether he planned to seek reelection.

“Is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen,” Biden said, saying he would make his decision after the November midterms.

He did qualify his remarks by saying it had always been his “intention” to seek another term and that “election laws” would come into play if he were to announce his candidacy at this juncture.

In the interview, recorded before Biden flew to Britain to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the president also said he was startled to see the photograph of top-secret documents on the floor of the residence at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, calling Trump “totally irresponsible.”

The president said his first thought was, “How could that possibly happen?” and added: “I thought: What data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?”

Biden said he has steered clear of trying to determine the specifics of what was in the documents that Trump possessed, leaving it to the Justice Department to sort out the matter. Biden has said that he didn’t have a heads-up that the FBI planned to search Mar-a-Lago to find classified documents, a search that has led to an ongoing legal battle between Trump and the Justice Department.

“I have not asked for the specifics of those documents,” Biden told Pelley, “because I don’t want to get myself in the middle of whether or not the Justice Department should move or not move on certain actions they could take.”

The interview was Biden’s first as president on “60 Minutes,” which launched its 55th season on Sunday night.