After a political career spanning over 50 years, Delaware Senator, former Vice President, and 46th President of the United States Joseph R. Biden is departing from public office and hanging up his hat. Being the oldest President in United States history (at age 82), he will most likely retire from politics and public life following his recent departure from the White House on January 20.
The Biden administration has improved the United States of America in many ways over the course of four long years. Biden came in during a time of political division and crisis in our nation. He is responsible for improving the economy, environment, gun control, and improving the lives of the American people during one of the worst public health and economic crises in a century, the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, as he prepares to leave office, he leaves behind a low approval rating of only 37%, particularly due to his handling of the economy, high inflation, illegal immigration, foreign policy, and others. With his successor, (and predecessor), Donald Trump, taking back the reins soon, Biden has reflected on his 50-year-long political career, and we must ask ourselves some questions. What led up to this point? Who was he before becoming President? Did the Biden administration solve issues, or create more? And how will the history books remember this president?
Born in 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden moved to Delaware when he was eleven years old. As a child, he developed a lifelong stutter, which affected his communication skills. In the 1960s, he became interested in politics and the civil rights movement. He ultimately graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965, and received a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University in 1968, graduating with degrees in history and political science.
As a rising politician, Biden hit success when he was elected into the United States Senate for the state of Delaware in 1972, at the age of 29, becoming the youngest-elected senator in the state’s history. It is a job he nearly gave up on following the deaths of his wife and young daughter in a car accident. However, he sought to keep going and never give up. Over the course of 36 long years in the Senate, he completed numerous issues. He also confirmed many nominations for judicial positions in the United States Senate and in the Supreme Court, and focused on many key issues,including LGBTQ rights, reducing crime, gun control, and foreign policy. Biden was initially strongly opposed to gay rights, even barring them from serving in the military, but would later change course.
In the 1990s, Biden focused on reducing crime, particularly through his role in passing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Using his role as a Senator for Delaware to become more involved in foreign policy, he voted against President George H.W. Bush’s decision to fight in the Gulf War in 1991. He worked with President Bill Clinton to provide aid for America during the and stop the genocide caused by the Bosnia and Kosovo wars in 1995 and 1999. Throughout the 2000s, he supported the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.
Biden’s dream from his college days was to one day become the President of the United States. He made his first run for the Democratic nomination in the 1988 election. However, after his role in a plagiarism scandal was discovered, he withdrew from the race, and this negatively affected his credibility. He attempted to run again in the 2008 election, focusing on reducing the number of troops in Iraq, which was a huge concern among voters at the time. However, due to lack of support, Biden withdrew once again. At the same time, the top Democratic candidate, a young African-American junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama took notice of Biden. Praising Biden’s strength, experience, and the potential he saw in him as a leader, selected Biden as his Vice Presidential pick. The duo became victorious in the 2008 election, and Biden left the Senate after 36 years and became Vice President in 2009.
During Biden’s days as the 47th Vice President, the United States was at the height of the worst economic crisis in the country since the Great Depression. Biden was responsible for overseeing the infrastructure from President Obama’s stimulus package in an attempt to address the financial crisis and improve the American economy. Together, Obama and Biden passed one of the greatest healthcare acts in history, the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which helped to improve healthcare for millions of Americans. After solving the debt ceiling crisis of 2011, Biden involved himself further in foreign policy by directing the government to remove terrorist groups and organizations.
A top aspect of Biden’s political career was gun control, a topic that became a sensitive issue after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of 2012. In response, Biden helped conduct and became the head of the Gun Control Task Force. He also helped pass the Violence Against Women Act, helping to protect their rights. After Obama was re-elected in 2013, Biden’s second term as vice president mainly revolved around foreign policy. He was focused on maintaining America’s safety in armed conflicts against Syria and preventing the Islamic State of Iraq from being on the rise. During the final years of the Obama administration, Biden was involved in maintaining diplomatic relations between America and Israel. Unfortunately, Biden lost his son Beau Biden to brain cancer in 2015, which left him unwilling to continue seeking public office after his vice presidency concluded in 2017.
During the first administration of Donald Trump, Biden was employed as an honorary professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He created the foreign policy research institute, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Biden became critical of Trump’s first administration, particularly after the infamous Charlottesville rally of 2017, in which white supremacists and militia groups led rallies and violent attacks promoting racist division and hatred. In response, Biden was encouraged to get back into office, and in 2019, he announced his decision to run for the presidency. The road to get there was not easy.
Once Biden was made the Democratic nominee, Trump took all means necessary to take him down, and attempted to have him investigated with his potential illegal connections to Ukraine. However, Biden refused to stand down. Biden contrasted Trump’s inability to effectively handle the COVID-19 pandemic which was getting worse, and heavily damaging America’s economy. Trump’s confrontational style also made his debates difficult. In the 2020 election, Biden came out victorious, defeating Trump by taking all of his main swing states. He selected former California Attorney General and Senator Kamala Harris as his Vice President. However, Trump responded by attempting to overturn the election results by claiming Biden was a fraud. However, Biden didn’t let that stop him either, and Biden and his team worked to protect the lives of Americans during the infamous attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, by Trump’s supporters. Ultimately, with Trump defeated, Biden was sworn on as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021.
Once President Biden was in office, he immediately got to work on responding and protecting America from the COVID-19 crisis. He signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law, a $2 trillion economic stimulus bill. To help the environment, he signed an executive order for the US government to cut its own carbon emissions by 65%. When inflation began rising under his administration, Biden helped create the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Americans soon became frustrated at growing prices. In order to solve another debt crisis, he chose to work with Republicans and negotiated deals to raise the debt ceiling. However, Biden’s presidency came under fire when he was responsible for overseeing the withdrawal of American troops following the conclusion of the war in Afghanistan. While the withdrawal was successful, American soldiers were left behind, and it eventually resulted in the Taliban retaking control of the country, essentially putting things right back to where they started during the onset of the war, which damaged his ability to handle foreign policy.
Biden oversaw the reinstatement of America’s membership in the international Paris Agreement. He also was responsible for providing billions of dollars to young college students to relieve their student debt and loans. In order to handle the Ukraine-Russia War, he imposed sanctions on Russia. Numerous peace deals didn’t work. Then, in 2023, the war between Israel and Hamas began, and the United States government began to provide most of their military aid to Israel, and limited to Palestine. Many Americans felt it was contributing to the genocide and the death toll. Combined with the inflation, rising prices, and wars. In addition, over 13 million illegal immigrants crossed through America’s border with Mexico, and committed crimes in America, which also caused a decline in his approval rating.
Despite the many problems associated with his presidency, Biden seemed determined to beat Trump again in the 2024 election. However, there were many concerns about Biden’s age and cognitive abilities, given numerous recorded gaffes on social media showed evidence of his declining physical and mental health due to his age and the stresses of the presidency. Biden’s main appeal to voters was to “Finish the Job” for the American people and “Protect Democracy” from Trump. On June 27, 2024, Biden and Trump had another debate, and in short: it was clear someone at the age of Biden couldn’t handle the pressures of the presidency. Numerous of his Democratic allies and donors urged him to drop out and pass the torch to a new leader, but Biden refused.
On July 21, he finally agreed to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris for President. However, it might have been too late. Lack of interviews, too many celebrity endorsements, and given her own statements that she was too similar to Biden on many issues, Kamala Harris failed to make the case that she would be different from President Biden. The Democrats couldn’t make their case with messaging in 2024, and not only did Kamala Harris lose to Trump, the Senate and House also went to the Republicans.
With Kamala Harris defeated, and Trump’s return looming, Biden spent the remainder of his term trying to fix many of the issues that had plagued America over the last 4 years, trying to certify his ultimate legacy in America’s history. He canceled over $183 billion dollars worth of student loans. He passed certain laws that would protect immigrants from being deported. He took his action to prevent the use of AI across the world by preventing the export of its chip from China to America. He announced the ban of new oil and gas drilling across 625 millions of US land.
To address his concerns with national security, particularly with his concerns over the rise of social media spreading misinformation into Americans’ minds, he gave a final authorization for the complete removal and ban of the TikTok app, which is set to begin on January 19th, 2025, the day before he departs. He commuted the death sentences of all federal death row prisoners, and commuted the sentences of 1,500 people, the most ever done by a U.S. President. However, the most significant accomplishment took place on January 15, 2025. Biden, working with Egypt and Qatar, presented a three-phase ceasefire proposal that both Israel, and Hamas agreed to. It resulted in all American and Israeli hostages being released, and marking an end to the war.
In his final farewell address to the nation, hours after completing the ceasefire, Biden reflected on his 50-year political career that was now coming to a close. With Trump returning, he gave America a warning that the United States was now going to face an oligarchy with the goals of Project 2025, Agenda 47, and Trump’s ultimate goals for complete domination and an end to democracy. Biden stated that America must be protected from rich people trying to take over the White House and end civil rights for all. While he didn’t exactly say any names, his two biggest targets were clear: Donald Trump, and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, will be running the country soon.
Biden urged voters to stick to Democratic norms and rules, as it remained one of America’s founding principles. Lastly, he stated it was the honor of his life to sit behind the Resolute Desk and to serve America for 50 years. In terms of future plans after the White House, he says he intends to return home to his home state of Delaware, continue policy work on the side, spend time with his wife, kids, and grandkids, and eventually, construct his presidential library.
So what will Biden’s ultimate legacy be? Well, the answer varies. Throughout his political career, he was known for his expertise and experience in serving the government. He spent his whole life trying to make lives better for Americans as Senator, Vice President, and President. He did his best to ensure a better economy, a safer country, uniting the people, and protecting the world from violence. While Biden did face numerous issues, he was responsible for bringing the country back on its feet and bringing things back to democracy when it was needed most. Whatever future America will face, they will have Joe Biden to thank for dedicating his whole life to making things better.