Joe Biden wrestles with the verdict of history
DONALD Trump's first hundred days were hectic, unprecedented even. Since that milestone, the pace hasn't exactly slackened. Indeed, there's been a continued flurry of moves and announcements. Internationally, we have seen trade deals (of a sort) struck with Britain and China. The President continues to press for a settlement to the war in Ukraine, without clarifying what outcome he favours.
The US has done some sort of deal with the Houthis in Yemen and is even negotiating with Iran.
Meanwhile the first proper overseas trip of Trump's second term — aside from attending the funeral of Pope Francis — was to the Middle East, but to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE rather than to Israel.
And to cap all of that Presidential activity, Joe Biden has re-entered the fray after a few months' hibernation.
Ex-Presidents usually take a bit more of a breather before setting out to write their memoirs and embellish their legacies. Joe Biden has come out of the blocks comparatively quickly. There are reasons for that. Biden is the oldest person ever to leave the White House (Donald Trump will overtake him on that score in 2029) and may feel he needs to hurry up in getting his story out there.
But, more important than that for Joe Biden was the manner of his departure from the White House. He was the first President in a very long time who did not get the opportunity to bid for a second term in the Oval Office.
The way he exited the 2024 race, pushed out the door by senior Democrats on the Hill (former Speaker Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer), still rankles with the former President who continues to believe that he could have beaten Donald Trump — though not many people share that assessment.
In the minds of most observers his catastrophic debate performance against Donald Trump fatally undermined his candidacy. It became the view of his fellow Democrats that Biden's name on the ticket would hand Republicans whopping victories in the House of Representatives and the Senate. In that view of things, the Harris campaign staunched the wound and ensured that both Houses of Congress remain tightly balanced, with every chance that the Democrats will retake control of the House in January 2027.
Like many leading political figures before him, Joe Biden is a proud man. You have to be to offer yourself as a candidate for the US Presidency. In his case, he rightly revels in his political achievements as a Senator, as Vice-President and as the man who deprived Donald Trump of re-election in 2020.
Remarkably, all of that was achieved from modest beginnings as 'Irish Joe from Scranton'. He also sees himself, with some justification, as a successful President who revived the US economy after Covid, rallied western support for Ukraine in 2022 and passed an unprecedented infrastructure bill whose effects will be felt for a long time to come.
Biden, who is known to have a stubborn streak and a quick temper, must also be getting weary of being pilloried by his successor, described repeatedly as the worst President ever, the root of all of America's failings that Trump has set himself up to cure.
Biden knows that there are books about to appear that will present an unflattering evaluation of his age-related frailties. Hence his haste is getting his version on the record.
One-to-one interviews were something he rarely did as President, but he has now sat down with the BBC and America's ABC. His performance on those channels was decent but not stellar.
His weaknesses from last year were still in evidence. He's just not crisp in delivering his message. He did get some hits in at Trump and tried to deflect the criticism that he stayed too long in the 2024 race.
His suggestion that Kamala Harris would not have won even if he had withdrawn earlier didn't do his loyal VP any favours as she tries to concoct a political future for herself. Many in her camp no doubt blame Biden's delayed exit for Harris's defeat.
Democrats will not be too pleased to see Joe Biden back in the spotlight. If they are to line up a team to defeat Trump's Republicans next year, Democrats need to start profiling their coming generation rather that witnessing the former President rage against 'the dying of the light' as the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas once wrote.
Joe Biden is most comfortable with international issues on which he has an unrivalled record. That makes me think that perhaps he ought to take on some more international travel as a senior statesman so as, in a soft sell manner, to remind people of how his America differed from Trump's.
That might be a more gainful post-White House activity than raking over the coals of his Presidential tenure and of the 2024 election campaign.
That train has left the station for the time being and only the historians of the future will be able to give his presidency its proper grade, probably somewhere in B+ territory, even if the final examination was sadly flunked.
Daniel Mulhall is a retired Irish Ambassador (who has served in Berlin, London and Washington), a consultant and an author. His latest publication is Pilgrim Soul: W.B. Yeats and the Ireland of his Time (New Island Books, 2023). He can be followed on X: @DanMulhall and Bluesky: @danmulhall.bsky.social
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