Columnists, analysts, reporters give withering assessments of Biden as he exits
Americans offer thoughts on Biden's legacy as outgoing president packs his bags
Americans spoke with Fox News Digital about President Biden and what they will remember most from his time in office.
President Biden came into office in 2021 a media darling. CNN's Anderson Cooper intoned it was a "new beginning" for America the day he was inaugurated. One CNN reporter at the time even tweeted he represented a return to "knowledge" and "truth."
Four years later, his legacy was met with harsh reviews in the months following Vice President Kamala Harris' loss to President-elect Donald Trump, which several columnists and political commentators suggest will be what Americans remember most about his one-term presidency.
"After a lifetime of noble service, he will be chiefly remembered — like so many in his generation — as a man who didn’t know when to leave," Washington Post columnist Matt Bai wrote.
Biden will officially exit the White House on January 20, Trump's inauguration day, feeling some regret about dropping out of the race in July. Critics and several of the president's early allies in the media have weighed in on how Biden would be remembered upon his departure.
"By the time Biden took the stage for his debate with Trump in June, it was clear that history had been hijacked by a dangerous delusion — one shared and fostered by his senior aides and even the reporters who covered him most closely," Bai wrote, after noting that Biden did deserve credit for his legislative achievements.
President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at Pullman Yards on March 9, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
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Members of the press were excited when Biden became the president in 2020, praising the president as a truth-teller and upright figure, particularly after four years of Trump. Reporter Yamiche Alcindor told him at his first press conference that he was widely perceived as a "moral, decent man."
New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker wrote in a piece published Wednesday that Biden "will end up in the history books as an interregnum between two terms of Donald J. Trump, a break in the middle of a chaotic period of change, for good or ill."
However, Baker's piece also focused on highs and lows. His highs, according to the report, included rebuilding infrastructure, his work on climate change, and his rallying support for Ukraine, among others.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens gave Biden credit for "NATO enlargement, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, defending Ukraine and Israel, strengthening alliances in the Pacific," though, he argued that they might not matter.
Stephens highlighted the deceptions and illusions of Biden's presidency in a column published in early January, his assertion that the 2021 migration surge was "seasonal," his position that it was "highly unlikely" the Taliban would take control of Afghanistan, his claim that inflation was just transitory, and lastly, "that he was the best Democratic candidate to defeat Donald Trump."
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Democratic strategist Susan Estrich told the BBC that Biden's legacy was essentially that Trump's presidency would book-end his own.
"He'd like his legacy to be that he rescued us from Trump," Estrich said. "But sadly, for him, his legacy is Trump again. He is the bridge from Trump One to Trump Two."
USA Today columnist Sara Pequeño wrote that Biden's legacy could have been "monumental," but instead, it may be "remembered as little more than an intermission between the first and second terms of Trump."
"That's likely to be true even if Biden has accomplished more to help Americans than Trump ever will," she said. "Biden will be remembered as the old man who handed the country over to Trump instead of the transitory president he claimed he would be, and history could ultimately show that he was."
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told USA Today that Biden "misread his mandate after the Democrats outperformed in the midterm elections of 2022," and decided to run again.
"Biden's now going down as a failed presidency," Brinkley said. "He didn't energize the nation."
President Joe Biden speaks about his administration on Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The Financial Times' Edward Luce said Biden's "hubris" kept him in the race too long, and said he would be remembered as easing Trump's return to the White House. Luce also called out the silence and secrecy surrounding Biden's fitness.
"Much has yet to be reported about the conspiracy of silence around Biden’s waning capacities. Though he was shielded from press conferences and other unscripted events, it was an open secret in Washington that his mind was in decline. Biden’s inner cabinet of family and longtime aides should take some of the blame. It was also a media failing. The rare journalist who blew the whistle risked loss of access and ostracism on liberal social media," he wrote.
Biden biographer Chris Whipple told USA Today that Biden's legacy was mixed. He said that while the president pulled the country out of a pandemic, and passed bipartisan legislation, he failed to address the border crisis and misjudged the impact of inflation.
"Biden's stubborn refusal to face the reality that he was too old, A, to run for reelection and then, B, to govern for a second term, is going to haunt him," he said.
The Atlantic's Franklin Foer, who also wrote a biography about the president, said just days after the election results came through, "Joe Biden cannot escape the fact that his four years in office paved the way for the return of Donald Trump. This is his legacy. Everything else is an asterisk."
President-elect Donald Trump is only the second president in history to win non-consecutive terms. (Evan Vucci/AP)
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The Washington Post's Christine Rampell wrote in January, "When we look back on the 46th president’s record in a couple of years, it probably will not have much of a lasting legacy either way," highlighting a major contrast to when he took office.
"When Biden entered office, commentators lavished him with grand historical parallels. He was a ‘transformational’ president ushering in another FDR-esque ‘New Deal’ or the next LBJ-like ‘Great Society.’ Biden supposedly had a mandate to create an entirely new, post-neoliberal ‘paradigm’ for economics," she wrote.
Pundits and columnists pointed to Biden's pardon of his son as another reason he wouldn't be remembered well. The president announced that he would be pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, in early December, despite repeatedly telling the public that he respected the justice system and would not use his pardon power on his son.
Biden specifically argued in his statement on the pardon that Hunter had been treated unfairly by the justice system.
Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at the Salem Civic Center, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Salem, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
CNN host Manu Raju said in December the pardon would be a "stain on his legacy," noting other controversial pardons by presidents.
CNN's Elie Honig said he agreed with Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who argued that the pardon would have a negative impact on his legacy in early December.
"Well, I totally agree with the governor that this pardon will tarnish Joe Biden’s legacy," the CNN legal analyst said. "I mean, Joe Biden, let’s be clear here, he lied to us for a long time. He said categorically, ‘I will not pardon my son.’ He said I will take it off the table. And he couched it in very high-minded terminology: ‘I respect the Justice Department. I respect the jury’s verdict.’ Well, now he’s gone back on that."
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Steph called out Biden for repeatedly lying about pardoning Hunter.
"And Hunter? A father’s love is admirable. A president’s lie is not. In one of his last major political acts in office, Joe Biden forgot who he was. But it seems as if that already happened years ago. History won’t be kind," he wrote.
Max Boot, a Washington Post columnist and strong Biden supporter, didn't have a positive assessment of Biden's foreign policy legacy.
President Joe Biden speaks during the United Auto Workers union conference at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2024. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
"Of course, Biden will try to take a victory lap, but there are not a lot of victories in sight," he told CNN. "I would say that his foreign policy has been kind of an unsatisfying middle of the road muddle where he has basically alienated pretty much everybody when it comes to both aid to Ukraine and aid to Israel, which have been the two big issues of his administration."
Boot argued that despite frustration with Biden's foreign policy, he did care for U.S. allies.
"All I would say is that unsatisfying and in many ways, you know, frustrating as — as Biden’s foreign policy has been, you ain’t seen nothing yet, because at least — you know, the best thing you can say for Biden is that he cared about U.S. allies," he said.
Biden himself argued his foreign policy made America stronger during a speech on Monday.
"My administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play," Biden said. "America is once again leading."
The president added, "Our alliances are stronger. Our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We have not gone to war to make these things happen."
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
