Joe Biden entered the nation's highest office promising to unite the country, strengthen his party and defend democracy.
Instead, the 82-year-old president ended up in the Oval Office with the country divided, the party in tatters, and the American people questioning a self-described institutionalist's respect for the rule of law.
Many Democrats blamed Biden for handing the White House to Donald Trump, criticized the aging politician for staying in office too long and were upset after pardoning his son. Biden, who has recently dismissed voters' concerns about the issue as he seeks re-election and has recently expressed doubts about his ability to stay in office for another four years, has added to the frustration.
The president harbors similar resentments toward members of his own party. After the November election, he privately considered pardoning Trump as a magnanimous move, according to a person with direct knowledge of his remarks, though it was unclear whether he seriously considered the idea. A White House official said, "To our knowledge, the issue has not been raised." Biden, meanwhile, is not on good terms with some of his closest allies.
It was all an ignominious end to fifty years in public service.
"The story of Joe Biden is one of the great tragedies of American politics. I really mean it. He deserves to enjoy an honorable, well-deserved, acclaimed retirement. But he's not," senior Democratic political strategist James Carville said. "It's hard to blame anyone but him."
Biden plan Writing another book would give him a chance to recount his presidency and its conclusion. Despite 2023 polls showing Democratic voters don't want him to run again, he's continuing to run with the support of party insiders. He was later forced to resign in July after a disastrous debate that appeared to expose his cognitive state. His late departure left Vice President Kamala Harris with just 107 days to launch an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against Trump.
Biden has given fewer interviews than his recent predecessors throughout his presidency and is ending his term the same way: He does not plan to hold a traditional final formal news conference.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden is proud of the number of interviews and impromptu questions and answers he has given to reporters.
One person who recently met with White House officials said the atmosphere inside the White House was "like a morgue." Biden left office feeling like he had delivered a major victory for the country, but Americans didn't appreciate it. Privately, as he reflected on his legacy, his mood ranged from melancholy to resignation, from anger to wistfulness, two people close to him said.
"He's very frustrated, and so are the people around him," said another person close to the president. One White House official attributed the somber atmosphere to Trump's impending return to the Oval Office, noting, Biden's aides responded with loud cheers when he surprised him at a staff gathering earlier this week.
Another White House official said staff were holding back their emotions in the lead-up to Jan. 20.
“It’s hard to reflect on and realize that we’re done — until we’re actually done and walking out the door with our stuff,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “That’s how they feel… … For people who are still here, that sentiment hasn’t sunk in yet because we were working until the very end. "
Once an elder statesman who served as a bridge to the next generation of leadership, Biden leaves with a series of broken relationships. He has alienated some of the people who were once his strongest allies. He, like first lady Jill Biden, harbors feelings for former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several former aides including Bob Ball and Anita Dunn. A long-simmering resentment. According to several people close to him, he believes all these people have either failed him or pushed him out of the 2024 race.
According to multiple people familiar with the matter, Biden has not spoken to former senior adviser Dunn in months and would be in danger if he decided to launch a campaign to challenge Hillary Clinton for the party nomination in 2016. Eng is one of the few prominent Democrats willing to support him. . Dunn left the White House over the summer amid fallout from Biden's June debate performance.
Biden's relationship with Dunn's longtime personal attorney has also soured since the debate and tensions surrounding son Hunter Biden's criminal trial, people familiar with the matter said. Neither Power nor Dunn attended a large black-tie dinner hosted by the Biden family in November to thank longtime supporters.
Three people familiar with the matter said Ball will no longer represent Biden once he leaves office.
Asked about his souring relationship with Dunn and Power, a Biden aide said, "Anita and Bob are well-respected and loyal to the president."
A Pelosi aide said that although Biden and Pelosi have crossed paths at social events in July, they have not had a substantive conversation since Pelosi pushed Biden to end the campaign.
“The relationship is permanently damaged,” said one person close to Biden.
A person familiar with the matter said Biden did not express his dissatisfaction with Obama directly to him.
A former top Obama aide who publicly argued after the June debate that Biden should quit pointedly this week that Biden recently named aircraft carriers after former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton but did not offer it to Obama Any similar honor.
"Barack H. Obama didn't get a troop carrier named after him," Ben Rhodes said on the podcast "Pod Save The World."
Before leaving office, Obama surprised Biden by awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in an emotional White House ceremony.
Asked about the president's dissatisfaction with Pelosi and Obama, White House Press Secretary Bates said in a statement, "President Biden's focus is entirely on making the biggest difference possible in the lives of American families, not on Incidents in the campaign”.
Biden has reneged on his promise to pardon Hunter Biden on federal gun and tax charges to protect norms he said underpinned the country's stability. The president blamed his son's prosecution on "raw politics," saying it "infected the entire process and led to a miscarriage of justice," language Trump often uses.
Biden was surprised and angry at Democratic criticism of the pardons, according to multiple people familiar with his reactions. Dunn was among those who publicly criticized the move.
Throughout his term, Biden has felt a tug of war between his inner circle in the White House and his family. Some members of his family, including Dunn, a former top White House aide and then-campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon, who at times felt the president was not well served by his team, and longtime close adviser Steve Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon. This is especially true as Biden's support continues to slip as the 2024 campaign gets into full swing while Trump's standing among voters continues to improve.
Biden did not make changes to his team until after he dropped out of the 2024 race. In the weeks and months after the gut-wrenching decision, anger among some of his family members toward his closest aides intensified.
In some cases, it flows both ways. Dunn and Power resented being unceremoniously pushed out of the president's inner circle and singled out two Biden family members, Hunter Biden and Jill Biden.
Aspects of the family drama are likely to continue into the next administration. Some of the president's staff are bracing for a possible congressional investigation into Hunter Biden's pardon and charges that the White House has denied, saying administration officials covered up the extent of Biden's mental decline.
Biden argued that after Congress passed major legislation, he set the stage for the country's long-term economic success — even if Americans don't feel the benefits now. He also considers his efforts to unite U.S. allies around Ukraine in the aftermath of the Russian invasion an important foreign policy achievement.
In a major development on Wednesday, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire after 15 months of devastating war in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of hostages taken by Hamas in an October 7, 2023, terror attack. Biden spent months trying to reach a ceasefire, but now he shares some credit with Trump as their two teams coordinated a round of talks to secure the deal.
When a reporter asked Biden at Wednesday's news conference whether he or Trump deserved credit for the truce, Biden turned around and smiled: "Is this a joke?"
White House spokesman Bates said of the president's record: "President Biden has uniquely qualified and is committed to serving the American people, and the result is the strongest record of any modern administration."
Critics have relentlessly criticized Biden for softening border policies early in his administration, leading to a surge in illegal crossings. Although he later tightened border controls, public opinion had already turned against him.
Some Democrats said Biden missed the mark early on the economy. Pete Giangreco, a veteran of presidential Democratic politics, said he should spend more time condemning greedy businesses instead of trying to convince the public that the economy is indeed better than thought.
"From the day he walked into the White House, there was a constant struggle within him: Is he Joe from Scranton, a populist union figure? Or is he the business-friendly senator from Delaware? Joe?" Gian Greco said. "He can never decide who he is. If he had been Joe from Scranton from day one and had been Joe from Scranton from day one, the outcome might have been different."
Lynn Vavrek, a professor of American politics at UCLA, said Biden has paid a political price for the pandemic-era policies of the previous two presidents. Many voters had grown accustomed to subsidies from the Trump and Biden administrations and then watched prices rise when the subsidies ran out — a double whammy after Trump was out of office for so long.
“They believe they will be better off economically with Trump as president,” Vavrek said. "That's probably true for a very, very large number of people because of the stimulus money and all the support for the aid programs that the government is providing."
But another long-time ally, prominent Democratic donor John Morgan, said Biden is right to be bitter about the lack of fanfare about his presidency, noting that he made massive investments in infrastructure, a booming stock market and unemployment lower and “handled the pandemic deftly”.
"Objectively speaking, I believe this has been a great presidency. You know they believe that. You can hear it in the president's voice," Morgan said. "You look at all the statistics and think: 'Why don't you put me on your shoulders?'"
In the short term, all this has done little to impress the public. According to a CNN poll released on Wednesday, Biden will leave office with an approval rating of 36%. Low approval ratings have dogged him throughout his presidency, and he now feels particularly bitter about leaving office without an improvement in his standing in the eyes of Americans, according to two people familiar with the matter.
In another world, Biden would step down as the Democratic nominee in 2023, and the president would spend his final weeks in office receiving waves of accolades, cutting ribbons at airports named after him, or depositing money into bank accounts. billion in exchange for the chance to win the presidential election. Cavell suggested that the Ivy League Policy Center be established in his name.
"Joe Biden had many successes in his life. Unfortunately, your last act will be remembered," Carville said. "Now, he's remembered as the guy who stayed too long."