President Joe Biden capped a half-century political career with a final speech in the Oval Office on Wednesday as he hopes to seal a legacy darkened by Democrats’ failure to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House.
Biden opened his speech with a familiar message: asking Americans to unite, but quickly warned of a dangerous concentration of wealth in the United States.
“Our system of separation of powers, checks and balances may not be perfect, but it has sustained our democracy for nearly 250 years, longer than any nation in history that has attempted such a bold experiment,” Biden said.
But he warned of a “technological industrial complex” that is causing an “avalanche of disinformation and disinformation, allowing the abuse of power.” The free press, he added, “is falling apart.”
Biden hands over power to Trump at noon (10:00 p.m. Pakistan time) on Monday.
Trump has recruited billionaire Elon Musk, who helped his election efforts, as a special adviser charged with cutting federal government costs.
The prescient speech comes as Biden’s Democratic Party has little influence in national politics and Trump has nominated a slate of Cabinet members who have pledged to change traditional American alliances and governing norms.
Biden ran for president in 2020 as a transitional figure, but opted at the unprecedented age of 80 to run for re-election, convinced he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump.
Forced to drop out of the race in July after a disastrous debate against Trump, Biden has been blamed by some Democrats for his loss in November, after Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign lost every key state.
Biden and his allies oversaw the Covid-19 recovery, funded an infrastructure restart, boosted manufacturing of new semiconductor chips and tackled climate change as they sought to rebalance inequality and invest in the future. He leaves a top-performing U.S. economy and optimistic businesses.
But Biden could not heal divisions in the country as he had hoped, nor stop democratic backsliding around the world. His greatest political achievement (defeating Trump in 2020) proved temporary. Now the Republican president-elect has vowed to undo much of what the Democratic administration accomplished.
“All Joe Biden wanted was to be remembered for the great things he did for this country and, at least in the short term, they have been overshadowed 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 re-emerging and returning to power, more powerful than he was when he left it, is an unfortunate coda to the story.” Biden addressed what he described as an ongoing threat to the country in a letter released Wednesday by the White House.
“I ran for president because I believed the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And that remains the case,” he said, urging Americans to continue fighting for the country to focus on equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A White House official said legacies are set over the long term. In historical terms, a millisecond has passed since the election. “This president has achieved the most important legislative record since LBJ (President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s), and the irreversible benefits of those laws will grow over decades,” the official said.
Sen. Chris Coons, a longtime ally, said Biden faced an economic crisis, a public health crisis and a democratic crisis following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters when he took office. that year.
“The country was in the depths of the crisis. The recovery from that pandemic has been his greatest achievement,” Coons said.
The Biden administration oversaw the distribution of Covid vaccines and an economic recovery that defied predictions of a recession, even as inflation soared and prices remained high, souring voters over its economic management.
Republicans took advantage of public frustration in last year’s elections, stoking anger over high prices with accusations of Democratic elitism and disconnection with working-class voters, while blaming immigrants for high prices, despite the lack of tests.
Four and a half decades of rising inequality cannot be reversed with a few years of absolutely good economic results and policy changes, said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute.
“But one of the most fundamental things they did was provide recovery aid on the scale necessary to generate a strong jobs recovery.”
Afghanistan, Israel
Biden, who spent more than three decades in the US Senate and eight years as Obama’s vice president before his four years as president, cites a unified Western response to Russia’s war with Ukraine, strengthening alliances and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. achievements in foreign policy.
However, 13 US service members died during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 and Biden’s popularity never recovered.
His strong support for Israel, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in response to the Hamas group’s attack on Israel, divided the Democratic Party and Biden’s reputation among the left took a hit.
Vincent Rigby, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s former national security adviser, said Biden will always be remembered as an “interlude” president despite his strong achievements in rebuilding trust in the United States after Trump’s first term.
“We will see how history treats him in five, 10 or 15 years, but he will be seen as the president between the two Trump presidencies. “He held the line, but Trump came back.”
