Biden bids farewell from Oval Office as Trump looms over his legacy

(Reuters)

Jan 15 – President Joe Biden will cap his half-century political career on Wednesday with a final Oval Office speech, hoping to cement a legacy that has been overshadowed by Democrats’ failure to stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House.

Biden ran for president in 2020 as a transition figure, but opted at the unprecedented age of 80 to run for reelection, convinced he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump. Forced out of the race in July after a disastrous debate against Trump, Biden has been blamed by some Democrats for their November wipeout, after Vice President Kamala Harris topped the ticket and put together a whirlwind campaign.

Biden and his allies oversaw the U.S.’s COVID recovery, funded an infrastructure revival, sparked new semiconductor chips manufacturing, and tackled climate change as they tried to rebalance inequality and invest in the future. He leaves an outperforming U.S. economy and optimistic businesses.

But Biden was unable to heal divisions in the country the way he had hoped, or stop democratic backsliding around the globe. His crowning political achievement — defeating Trump in 2020 — was temporary. Now the Republican president-elect has vowed to undo much of what the Democratic administration accomplished.

Biden addressed what he described as an ongoing threat in a letter released early Wednesday by the White House.

“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case,” he said, urging Americans to keep fighting for the country’s focus on equality, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“All Joe Biden wanted was to be remembered for the great things he did for this country and, at least in the short run, they’ve been eclipsed by his ill-conceived decision to run,” said David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.

“He became a historic president when he defeated Trump. So obviously the fact that Trump is resurgent and returning to power, more powerful than he was when he left, is an unhappy coda to the story.”

A White House official said that legacies are set over the long term.

“In historical terms, it has been a millisecond since the election. This president has locked in the most significant legislative record since LBJ, and the irreversible benefits of those laws will grow over decades,” the official said.