Biden walked back his promise to protect the norms he said supported the country’s stability by forgive him Hunter Biden on federal gun and tax charges. The president blamed his son’s prosecution on “raw politics,” saying it “infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” exploiting the type of language Trump often uses. Biden was surprised and angered by Democrats’ criticism of the pardon, according to several people familiar with his reaction. Dunn was one of those who publicly criticized the move.
Throughout his term, Biden felt the tug of war between his White House entourage and his family members. Some members of his family sometimes felt that the president was not well served by his team, which included Dunn, former senior White House aide and then campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, as well as his close and longtime advisors, Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon. This was especially the case as the 2024 campaign was in full swing and Biden’s approval rating continued to decline while Trump gained ground among voters.
Biden only made changes to his team after dropping out of the 2024 race. In the weeks and months following the heartbreaking decision, anger among some in his family toward his closest aides grew. .
In some cases it went both ways. Dunn and Bauer were unhappy at being unceremoniously excluded from the president’s inner circle and particularly blamed two members of the Biden family: Hunter Biden and Jill Biden. Some aspects of the family drama could continue under the next administration. Some members of the president’s staff are bracing for possible congressional investigations into Hunter Biden’s pardon and accusations, denied by the White House, that administration officials covered up the extent of Biden’s mental decline.
The unsung hero
Biden argued that he set the country up for long-term economic success after pushing major pieces of legislation through Congress — even if Americans aren’t feeling the benefits right now. He also views his efforts to unite U.S. allies around Ukraine after the Russian invasion as a crucial foreign policy achievement.
On Wednesday, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement after 15 months of devastating war in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack. Biden worked for months to reach a ceasefire agreement, but he now shares some credit for it with Trump, given that their two teams coordinated during the round of negotiations that allowed to reach an agreement.
When reporters asked Biden at a news conference Wednesday whether he or Trump deserved credit for the ceasefire, Biden turned and smiled: “Is this a joke?”
Bates, the White House spokesman, said of the president’s record in office: “President Biden has put his unique qualifications and his whole heart to work for the American people, and the results are the the strongest record of any modern administration. » relentlessly hitting Biden for relaxing border policies early in his administration, causing an increase in illegal crossings. Although he subsequently strengthened border controls, public opinion already thrown at him.
Some Democrats said Biden missed the mark from the start when it came to the economy. He should have spent more time going after greedy corporations rather than trying to convince the public that the economy was really better than they thought, said Pete Giangreco, a veteran of Democratic presidential politics .
“There was always this internal struggle from the day he entered the White House: Was he Joe from Scranton, the populist, union man? Or is it Joe, the senator from Delaware, who is pro-business? » said Giangreco. “He could never decide who he was. If he had been Scranton Joe from day one and stayed Scranton Joe from day one, the outcome might have been different.
Biden paid a political price for the pandemic policies of the last two presidencies, said Lynn Vavreck, a professor of American politics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Many voters grew accustomed to subsidies provided by the Trump and Biden administrations, then saw prices rise as the subsidies dried up — a double whammy that hit when Trump was long out of office.
“They thought they were better off financially under the Trump presidency,” Vavreck said. “This is probably true for a very large number of people because of the government stimulus payments and all the support” for aid programs.
But another longtime ally, prominent Democratic donor John Morgan, said Biden was right to feel bitter about the lack of fanfare around his presidency, pointing to massive investments in infrastructure, a booming stock market , a low unemployment rate and having come through the pandemic “masterfully”. .”
“Objectively, I think it was a great presidency. You know they believe it. You can hear it in the president’s voice,” Morgan said. “You look at all the statistics and you say, ‘Why don’t you all carry me on your shoulders?’ “In the immediate future, all this did little to move the public. Biden is poised to leave office with a 36% approval rating, according to a CNN poll published Wednesday. Low approval ratings have dogged him throughout his presidency, and he is now particularly worried about leaving office without his standing with Americans having improved, according to two people familiar with the matter.
In an alternate universe, in which Biden retired as the Democratic nominee in 2023, the president would have ridden waves of accolades in his final weeks, cutting ribbons at airports named in his honor or cashing in hundreds of million dollars for an Ivy League Policy Center in his name, Carville suggested.
“Joe Biden has accomplished many successful acts in his life. Unfortunately, you are remembered for your final act,” Carville said. “Right now, he’s remembered as the guy who stayed too long.”