Where Has Joe Biden Been?
America appears to have two Presidents
Democrats ran their 2024 election campaign on a platform that democracy was in grave danger. Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris warned that Donald Trump posed an existential threat to the Constitution and the Republic. I wrote many times how I agreed with this, but most voters were more concerned about inflation.
Despite voicing these serious concerns, Joe Biden has been largely absent from public life since his Vice President, Kamala Harris, lost the 2024 election to Trump. He’s made few public appearances, and the biggest news he’s made was the pardoning of his own son, Hunter Biden, after saying for years that he wouldn’t.
Biden finally made an appearance on Sunday to discuss the fall of al-Assad’s regime in Syria, but it was mostly from a teleprompter. He was right that his foreign policy and the strong coalition he built to defend both Ukraine and Israel against their aggressors in Russia and Iran led to the downfall of al-Assad, who was backed by both. But the legacy-defining impact of his statement was muted by the fact Trump had already made a splashy statement of his own.
Trump had posted a “Truth” on Syria, appearing to sympathize with Russia that the war in Ukraine had hurt their ability to defend al-Assad. He even took questions from reporters with no teleprompter in sight.
This has been a running theme for a mostly absent Joe Biden this past month. It’s also a reminder of how Trump won the 2024 election by dominating the narrative against the Democrats.
America is supposed to have one President at a time yet it appears to have two right now — Biden and Trump. It’s a point Obama countered in 2016 when Trump made similar moves to influence policy before being formally inaugurated. Trump had called for vetoing a UN security resolution that criticized the expansion of Israeli settlements, but Obama ignored him, allowing the resolution to pass.
Obama also called a press conference and answered questions without a script shortly after Trump won the 2016 election. He didn’t hide or avoid questions. Obama was forceful about defending his legacy, and now many Trump supporters even like the Affordable Care Act.
Biden, on the other hand, has been practically invisible. All Presidents are “lame ducks” to a degree in the waning days of their administrations, but Biden has been particularly lame. He hasn’t responded to any of the Trump appointments, even though many of them are controversial even with Republicans. He hasn’t done press conferences or big meetings with foreign leaders. Biden has even let Trump front run him on messaging about consequential events like al-Assad’s downfall in Syria.
One of the most glaring public appearances this past weekend was Trump attending the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, and other world leaders.
Do you know who was not there? Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
Trump stole the presidential spotlight.
For her part, Kamala Harris vowed to “continue the fight” after her concession speech, but she hasn’t appeared to fight for anything this past month except for a trip to Hawaii. It’s understandable that she would want a break after a tough campaign, but the past month has been similar to most of her Vice Presidential term — missing in action.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been indefatigable. Not only did he run a longer campaign than Harris, he made more public appearances, did more podcast and social media interviews, and drove the national conversation even when he wasn’t in public through his incessant posting on social media.
Trump’s team has worked with blazing speed at appointing a motley crew of characters to fill his cabinet. Some of these characters are terribly unqualified on their face, but few people are going to hear the full stories about Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard (who long defend al-Assad), and many other billionaires appointed by Trump if Democratic leaders like Biden and Harris don’t sound the alarms.
Where did the “threats to democracy” alarm bells go? Did they only matter when Democrats were trying to win an election?
Where were Biden and Harris when the UnitedHealthcare CEO was gunned down in Manhattan, and it became clear how enraged people are at elitists who take advantage of ordinary Americans? It could have been the perfect opportunity to juxtapose that anger against all the billionaires Trump appointed to his administration. It could have been a great chance to ask the American people — is Trump, a billionaire himself, really working in the best interests of working class and ordinary Americans, or is he really working to enrich himself and a team of oligarchs who helped him return to power?
But neither Biden nor Harris can ask these questions or cement their legacies if they are absent. The frustrating part is that Biden has much to celebrate — the economy added 227,000 jobs in November, unemployment is still low (around 4%), inflation is down, and the stock market over the past year plus has soared.
While many of the Biden policies like the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act may not be fully realized for a few years, it’s likely that Americans will come to appreciate them in time, just as many have with the Affordable Care Act (which Trump doesn’t criticize nearly as much for a reason).
If Biden does not define and defend his legacy, Trump will do it for him. If Democrats are passive and suddenly indifferent about Trump’s threats to democracy, including an insane recent threat to imprison members of the January 6th Committee like Liz Cheney, Trump will act with increasing authoritarian flair.
Joe Biden cannot be absent if he wants to protect everything he’s worked for over the past four years. With an incoming President like Trump who champions a very different worldview, it’s important for Biden to remind the American people of the likely risks. It’s important that he further justifies why he defended Ukraine, supported Israel, and worked to weaken Russia and Iran, which has now led to al-Assad’s ouster in Syria.
If Biden fails to define and defend his legacy, it may be lost completely along with the memory of an America that took principled stands in favor of democracy. Yes, America has made many mistakes and stuck its nose into places it shouldn’t, but on the whole, the America of Joe Biden tried to do the right thing.
The fight for democracy doesn’t end when you lose an election. When you lose to someone who aspires to authoritarianism, that’s when the fight begins.
Read more at The Political Prism on Medium:
Can Tradwives Be Feminists? by SK Lee
The Unforgivable Pardon by Oliver Caute
Tariffs and Truth: Why ‘Buying American’ Isn’t Simple by Neela
The Lessons From Clinton and Obama that Democrats Forgot by Eric Sentell