The Biden presidency is ending as dishonestly as it began

His ‘personal ambition’, his lust for power and his epic self-regard meant that he refused to give way until he had no choice

‘I made some mistakes,” said Joe Biden. “But now, the exaggerated shadow of those mistakes has begun to obscure the essence of my candidacy and the essence of Joe Biden.”
That was in 1987, when the then Senator had to quit his presidential campaign after being caught plagiarising speeches by Neil Kinnock, Bobby Kennedy and John F Kennedy.
Last night, for the first time since his announcement on Sunday that he is withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election, Biden addressed the nation from behind the Resolute Desk.
“I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” he said. Appropriately enough, that was another line ripped off from John F Kennedy’s inaugural address.
Biden is now a shadow of his former self, yet his essence remains. He didn’t talk about mistakes this time. Yet his capacity for self-delusion is as strong as ever.
“I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term,” he said. “But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”
Oh, the humility! Everybody knows, however, that Biden should have given this speech years ago, when he was less far gone. But his “personal ambition”, his lust for power and his epic self-regard meant that he refused to give way until he had no choice. His party had turned on him, his body and mind kept failing him, and his re-election campaign lay in ruins. He has not nobly fallen on his sword. He has been forced out. He’ll never admit the truth, though.
Biden warbled through his now familiar list of boasts about his administration: the post-pandemic recovery, “the strongest economy in the world”, the massive investments in combating climate change, science and innovation, and closing the racial wealth gap.
He’s not altogether wrong. America’s economy is performing well. But one of the reasons Biden would, in all likelihood, have lost to Donald Trump is that most Americans don’t feel better off today than they did four years ago. They don’t feel safer on their streets, either.
He bragged that he is “the first president of this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.” That’s technically true, yet today, following the calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East, Biden can hardly make the claim that he has achieved peace through strength.
Perhaps his most Jesuitical claim was that “border crossings are lower today than when the previous administration left office”. He omitted to mention that, under his administration, America has been convulsed by an illegal immigration crisis. “Migrant encounters”, to use the official term, hit record highs in 2023.
The Biden administration has, from beginning to end, been an exercise in deceit – the largest of which has been the cover up of Biden’s ill-health. “I made my choice,” said the president, as he praised the “tough” and “capable” Kamala Harris. “Now the choice is up to you, the American people.”
But the American people have not chosen Kamala Harris. She would not have won the Democratic primary through democratic means. She has instead been foisted on a party that is desperate to stop Donald Trump and doesn’t really know how to do it. “History is in your hands,” concluded Biden. “The power’s in your hands.” In the large and crowded field of Biden lies, that stands out as the biggest.