Biden admits Dems 'forgot' rural America, says he did 'something good for the country' by beating Trump

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President-elect Joe Biden said Democrats "forgot" rural America in an interview with New York Times opinion columnist Thomas L. Friedman published Wednesday.

Biden also said he felt like he did "something good for the country" after beating President Trump in the 2020 election when asked what it was like to win a presidency during a pandemic.

"I feel like I’ve done something good for the country by making sure that Donald Trump is not going to be president for four more years," Biden told Friedman in a phone interview. "But there's been no moment of elation."

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks with United Steelworkers Union President Thomas Conway and school teacher Denny Flora of New Castle, Pa. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

He said his win reminded him of what his grandchildren are going through, and he brought up his granddaughter, who is graduating from Columbia University but will have a virtual commencement and "no parties."

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"It’s just one of those moments. There’s a lot of work to do," he said. "I’m just focused on getting some things done as quickly as I can."

The president-elect also admitted that Democrats have forgotten about rural America while insisting that, this time, they will not be left behind.

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“You know, it really does go to the issue of dignity, how you treat people," Biden said of future efforts from Democrats to win the support of rural Americans and the 74 million people who voted for Trump in the election. "I think they just feel forgotten. I think we forgot them."

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks with people outside a voter service center, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, in Chester, Pa. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Biden told Friedman of rural Americans: "I respect them" and said he will prove it by "tackling the virus" in "red and blue areas alike."

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While Democrats powered through cities and suburbs to reclaim the White House, the party slid farther behind in huge, rural swaths of northern battlegrounds. The party lost House seats in the Midwest, and Democratic challengers in Iowa, Kansas, Montana and North Carolina Senate races, all once viewed as serious threats to Republican incumbents, fell, some of them hard.

Though Democrats’ rural woes aren’t new, they now heap pressure on Biden to begin reversing the trend. Failure to do so endangers goals such as curbing climate change and winning a Senate majority, especially with GOP Senate seats in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin up in 2022.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.