There's just under two weeks before President Joe Biden leaves office. President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office once more, as Biden's predecessor and successor. As much as Trump has been maligned by partisans and academics, he has another term to improve his image and the country. What about Biden, though? How will he be remembered when he was barely able to get through one term?
In Biden's case, it depends on who you ask. If you ask the president, who has not been all that mentally there, he thinks he'll be remembered pretty fondly.
On Wednesday, a write-up from Biden's exit interview with USA Today was published, with a particularly nonsensical point from the aging president claiming that he could have beat Trump a second time, though he doesn't even know if he could last another four-year term.
The takeaways also addressed how Biden wants his presidency to be viewed:
As he prepares to leave the White House after four years ‒ and end a political career that spanned five decades ‒ Biden said he hopes to leave a presidential legacy defined by two fronts.
"I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan how to restore the economy and reestablish America's leadership in the world," said Biden, who came into office in January 2021 during a historic pandemic and amid straining relations with traditional U.S. allies. "That was my hope."
"And I hope it records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind," he said.
On the foreign policy front, Biden touted his record "reestablishing our alliances." And he called for continued U.S. leadership on the global stage as many hardline Republicans close to Trump embrace isolationism from international conflicts.
"I think America is desperately needed to lead the world," Biden said. "Let me put it in this context. Who leads the world if we don't? Not a joke. Who leads and tries to put together the kinds of coalitions and policies that are international in scope? I mean, it's all cliché. The world's really getting small, man."
Sure, Biden may want that, but that doesn't mean he'll get it. If anything, his policies and those he emboldened in his administration, in many ways, did the opposite. It was all likely by design, too. Biden is likely truly gone if he believes all that he just said above, but it's also fair to point out that he was enabled by First Lady Jill Biden and First Son Hunter Biden, who kept him in the race for reelection as long as they did, as well as staffers. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre played a particularly major role in gaslighting the American people as well.
Notice how there's a focus on foreign policy. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021 could not have gone more poorly. Worse, it likely emboldened Russia to attack Ukraine in February 2022, with Vladimir Putin waiting until Trump was no longer in office. Hamas, a proxy of Iran, also attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Iran has been further emboldened under the Biden-Harris administration.
Even more shameful is that the write-up addresses Biden's regrets, and they're quite selfish at that:
Regrets? He has a few.
His biggest disappointment, Biden said, was his failure to effectively counter misinformation, including that from Trump. He said that challenge reflects the revolution in how Americans get their news, and whom they trust to tell it.
"Because of the way, nature, the nature of the way information is shared now, there are no editors out there to say 'That's simply not true,'" Biden said. He mentioned Trump's rhetoric about the threat from migrants, though in doing so he apparently conflated two recent attacks by Army veterans involving trucks, one in New Orleans and the other in Las Vegas.
"The guy in Las Vegas is a guy, is a veteran, born and raised in America," Biden said. "And yet the president comes along, soon to be president again, come along and says: 'It's clear. It's an invasion from the south. All these immigrants are causing all this problem.' ... And I'll bet you there's 70% of people out there that read that and believe it. How do you deal with that?"
In Las Vegas, the man behind the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel was reportedly a Trump supporter, leaving writings calling it a "wake up call" and saying the United States was "terminally ill and headed toward collapse."
In New Orleans, the man who drove a truck into a crowd in the French Quarter was a Texas-born American who had been radicalized by the Islamic State group, or ISIS.
"When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true," Trump had posted on Truth Social after the New Orleans attack.
Biden also expressed frustration about how long it took to get shovels in the ground for the infrastructure projects. "Historians will talk about (how) great the impact was, but it didn't (have) any immediate impact on people's lives," he said. "I think we would've been a hell of a lot better off had we been able to go much harder at getting some of these projects in the ground quicker.
"And so I don't think I've been very good at − " He paused.
Taking credit?
"Or not so much me, but establish that the government did this for you."
Notice how there's no mention of the 13 U.S. servicemembers who lost their lives as a result of the withdrawal. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris continue to add insult to injury to the pain that the families faced. There appears to be no mention of Afghanistan at all, per the interview's transcript.
If Biden ever had "a plan how (sic) to restore the economy and reestablish America's leadership in the world," it would be what not to do. The economy was viewed much more positively under Trump, and what supposed successes in job growth Biden and his allies touted, were fact-checked, given that these were jobs that Americans returned to.
Our enemies don't fear us, as we saw with Russia and Hamas, and our allies can't exactly count on us. This especially goes for how the Biden-Harris administration has been less than pro-Israel, from withholding arms to catering to the pro-Hamas crowd with focuses on a two-state solution nonsense. Further, other world leaders are ready for Trump to be the official president and have been for some time, as we saw over a month ago when he traveled to Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
As it turns out, Americans don't agree with Biden on how he'll be remembered. That's not entirely surprising, given that polls for a Trump-Biden rematch, when Biden was still in the race, showed Trump winning. Analysis from CNN's Harry Enten confirmed that as well. Harris was no better, as she still lost against Trump when she was installed as the replacement nominee.
On Tuesday, Gallup released a poll showing there are reasons to be pessimistic about Biden, "Americans Think History Will Rate Biden Presidency Negatively."
Over half, 54 percent, of U.S. adults believe that Biden will be rated as "below average" (17 percent) or "poor" (37 percent), with a plurality giving him that worst rating. Gallup includes presidents going back to John F. Kennedy, and no other president has a higher amount of Americans saying they'll be rated as "poor."
Twenty-six percent believe that Biden will be regarded as "average," while 13 percent say "above average" and just 6 percent say he'll be regarded as "outstanding." The only presidents with lower "outstanding" numbers include Presidents George W. Bush (5 percent) and Richard Nixon (4 percent).
Avoiding to a recent Gallup poll, Joe Biden is in fact the worst. pic.twitter.com/v5gXYkpHwn
— NMFreedom (@SCIANextTime) January 9, 2025
Not even a majority of Biden's fellow Democrats can say he was "above average" or "outstanding," with 44 percent saying so. Of all the Democratic presidents included in the chart, he's the only one who can't get a majority saying so, as a chart included in the write-up shows. Sixteen percent say he'll be remembered as "below average" or "poor." The write-up also notes that "nearly as many Democrats believe Biden will be remembered as an “average” president (38%) as a good one."
As is further mentioned:
Democrats’ +28 net rating of Biden’s presidency is significantly lower than their ratings of other recent Democratic presidents, with Clinton at +43 being the next lowest. Biden is the only recent Democrat with a net-negative rating among political independents, and his -92 net rating among Republicans is more than 40 points worse than for any other Democratic president.
A chart also highlights how those 16 percent of Democrats who believe Biden will be regarded as "below average" or "poor" is by far the highest when it comes to any other Democratic president going back to Kennedy. Nine percent say as much about Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, with the latter having just died on December 29, and so, as the poll write-up mentions, his death might change people's view of him.
Not surprisingly, Republicans don't think Biden will be regarded very positively, with just 1 percent saying they think he'll be regarded as "above average" or "outstanding." Independents are also particularly sour on Biden, with just 15 percent believing he'll be regarded in such a positive way.
"Biden’s fellow Democrats are less enthusiastic about his presidency than they are about other recent Democratic presidents, and Biden is the only recent Democratic president who currently has a net-negative evaluation among independents," the poll write-up bottom line reads in part.
The poll was conducted December 2-18 and included 1,003 U.S. adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
While Americans may regard Biden in such a way and believe that history will, time will tell if that's too pessimistic, given that Biden is a Democrat and those who put together polls like the Presidential Greatness Project Expert appear to be so biased.
Sure enough, Gallup alluded to some changes for Biden. "However, past presidents who finished challenging terms, including Carter, George W. Bush and Trump, have seen the harsh ratings they received at the time they left the White House soften considerably over time," the poll write-up concludes.
Just as it's worth wondering if Biden is serious with such claims, it's also worth pointing out that Biden might not even remember just how badly he failed at what he claimed he set out to do.
"At least he enjoys the benefit of not remembering any of it," posted The Babylon Bee's Seth Dillon on X as he shared coverage of the poll from the New York Post.
At least he enjoys the benefit of not remembering any of it. https://t.co/qGmmuDjplV
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) January 8, 2025
