But Biden told the Times that he was confident he could co-operate with McConnell. “There are a number of things that when McConnell controlled the Senate that people said couldn’t get done, and I was able to get them done with [him]. I was able to get them to, you know, raise taxes on the wealthy.”

“I think there are trade-offs, that not all compromise is walking away from principle,” Biden added. “He knows me. I know him. I don’t ask him to embarrass himself to make a deal.”

Biden suggested that his approval rating compared with President Donald Trump’s has brought him leverage in negotiations with the GOP and that “a significant number of independents and some Republicans could start to look at the world very differently in the next few weeks.”