President Biden is on a two-month sprint to try to define his place in history, but he’s suddenly facing a hurdle from members of his own party who say his biggest legacy is delivering President-elect Donald Trump back into the White House.
Fellow Democrats, who in July cheered Mr. Biden for his statesmanship in relinquishing the party’s nomination and proclaimed him a transformative president, now worry he’s cast Democrats into the political wilderness for years.
It creates significant headwinds for Mr. Biden, particularly as the blame Biden crowd gets louder.
“Had Joe Biden made good on his promise to be a transitional figure — a ‘bridge’ to a new generation of Democratic candidates — we might not be in this situation,” wrote Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic election lawyer who worked on behalf of the Harris camp. “He would have been a hero. Now, he will be remembered most for his ill-advised decision to attempt a reelection run.”
Christy Setzer, a Democratic strategist and owner of New Heights Communications, said it’s tough for Democrats to square “the genuine love and appreciation we have for President Biden’s accomplishments and for Joe Biden the man” with what she called “the very real possibility that he helped end the republic.”
“Maybe we were fighting such a strong global post-COVID, anti-incumbency anger, that there was nothing he, or any Democrat, could’ve done,” she said. “But it’s pretty clear that everything he fought for — a stronger middle class, historic investments to fight climate change, a sense of normalcy — are exceptionally at risk now.”
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The post-election legacy blitz is a given for every president on his way out.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush each took their own approaches.
Mr. Clinton shamelessly played for the crowd, while Mr. Obama honed in on the historic nature of his time in office. Mr. Bush and his team, meanwhile, joked that historians were still arguing over how to view George Washington — “the first G.W.,” he said — so his legacy would be settled by future generations.
But Mr. Biden’s task is tougher.
That’s partly because of how he is leaving — having made a bid for a second term, then bowing out after pressure from fellow Democrats, including party royalty in Mr. Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But it’s also because he made such an impassioned plea to voters that Mr. Trump is a fundamental threat to the country.
Rick Shenkman, a historian and founder of the History News Network, said if Mr. Trump bears out those fears, Mr. Biden’s legacy would suffer for having fostered the second Trump administration. But if Mr. Trump defies those predictions, it would actually help Mr. Biden.
“Of course this is ironic,” Mr. Shenkman told The Washington Times. “Biden’s legacy depends on Trump not screwing up. In the absence of a Trump disaster, historians would be inclined to judge Biden more generously.”
He said there’s no historical precedent for that type of situation — mainly because Mr. Trump is without comparison.
“No other president than Biden had to worry that his successor would trash the republic,” Mr. Shenkman said.
Mr. Biden has been remarkably quiet since the election, with Mr. Trump absorbing most of the political oxygen.
But the White House says he’s about to make his pitch for his legacy.
The effort began this week with a memo arguing he goosed the U.S. economy with more than $1 trillion in private spending on clean energy and semiconductors.
The outgoing president is expected to do more memos, speeches and even sit-down interviews with journalists as he seeks to burnish his resume.
Mr. Biden had defended his legacy when he made his decision in July to drop out of the race and bequeath the Democrats’ nomination to Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term,” he said at the time. “But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”
At the time, fellow Democrats hailed his signatures on massive spending bills, including a controversial coronavirus stimulus, a $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure and a nearly $400 billion infusion in climate change funding from a 2022 budget-climate law.
They also praised him for helping Ukraine in its war against Russia, his attempts to forgive student loans and his expansive use of pardon powers for marijuana offenders.
But rampant inflation and a chaotic border left voters restless, and even improvements in the border numbers over the last half-year did little to improve Mr. Biden’s image.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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