For 4 years as president, and for almost half a century extra in public life, Joseph R. Biden Jr. professed an optimistic, ironclad perception within the power of American democracy.
However within the remaining moments of his presidency, Mr. Biden struck an unusually pessimistic notice. Minutes earlier than his successor is sworn in, Mr. Biden pardoned five members of his familycondemning the political assaults of Donald J. Trump and his allies and stating, “I’ve no cause to consider these assaults will finish.”
Hours earlier, Mr. Biden had pardoned others focused by Mr. Trump, together with Gen. Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and former consultant Liz Cheney.
“These are distinctive circumstances,” he mentioned in a press release, “and I can’t, in good conscience, do nothing.”
This might not have been the coda Mr. Biden imagined when he determined to make his third bid for the White Home in 2019, telling family and friends that he felt compelled by feedback from Mr. Trump on the racial violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The transfer validated his decades-long quest for the presidency with a convincing victory in 2020 that ousted Mr. Trump from the Oval Workplace amid the worst pandemic the nation has seen in 100 years. The political collision between the 2 males ended Monday as Mr. Biden sought to forestall the retaliation he fears Mr. Trump might impose on his household.
It was a darkish finish to his lengthy profession within the federal authorities, which started when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972, on the age of 29.
Mr. Biden favored to say that America may very well be outlined by a single phrase: alternative.
On Monday, as he left Washington, his promise to “finish this uncivil battle between pink and blue” was not stored. Its efforts to rebuild the financial system “via the intermediary” threat being nearly dismantled. And he leaves the nation within the palms of the person he has repeatedly known as an existential risk to the nation’s democratic future.
The lesson, after only one mandate, could also be this: potentialities are on no account ensures.
Mr Biden’s legacy will embody his dealing with of the pandemic, vaccine distribution and restoration of an financial system from the brink of catastrophe. He has poured cash into combating local weather change, repairing getting older infrastructure and creating incentives for high-tech chipmakers in america. He capped the worth of some medicine, signed uncommon gun management laws and canceled some scholar debt.
However his tenure was additionally marked by the upheaval attributable to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and by rising doubts about his means to manipulate in his ninth decade, culminating in his celebration’s resolution to exclude him from the 2024 marketing campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris. .
In his farewell handle to the nation from the Oval Workplace final week, Mr. Biden didn’t dwell on these challenges. He avoids mentioning Mr. Trump immediately, saying solely: “I want the brand new administration success, as a result of I need America to succeed.” »
However in his speech he conjured up the picture of the Statue of Liberty, which he mentioned was “constructed to swing forwards and backwards, to face up to the fury of storms, to face up to the check time, as a result of the storms at all times come – it sways a number of inches, but it surely by no means falls into the present beneath.
He known as the statue “an everlasting image of the soul of our nation, a soul formed by the forces that carry us collectively and by the forces that tear us aside, and but, in good occasions and dangerous, we have now resisted All “.
It might have been a metaphor for his personal profession, particularly on the finish. Battered by critics inside and outdoors his celebration, Mr. Biden leaves the White Home and the nation’s capital defeated, whereas promising “a peaceable and orderly transition of energy to make sure that we lead by the facility of our instance.
Earlier than Monday’s inauguration, Mr. Biden hosted Mr. Trump for tea and occasional on the White Home, telling his successor “welcome residence.” After the inauguration ceremony on the Capitol, Mr. Biden boarded the helicopter that served as Marine One throughout his presidency for the ultimate time for a brief journey to close by Joint Base Andrews. His aides say he deliberate to journey to Santa Ynez, Calif., for a trip as Mr. Trump returned to the Oval Workplace.
Mr. Biden will probably return to his residence in Wilmington, Del., the place he spent most weekends throughout his political profession in Washington.
On the air base, lots of Mr. Biden’s White Home workers gathered to say goodbye. Briefly remarks, the previous president thanked them for “upholding the core values of honesty, decency and integrity.”
However he additionally urged them to remain within the struggle towards Mr. Trump and the agenda that his MAGA motion represents.
“We nonetheless have so much to do,” he informed the gang of supporters and workers members. Then, demonstrating his Catholic upbringing, he crossed himself and seemed on the ceiling, referring to Mr. Trump: “We heard the inaugural handle at present. We nonetheless have so much to do.
“We’ve got at all times finished our greatest as People,” he continued. “We by no means, ever, ever hand over. We’re leaving our positions. We’re not giving up the struggle.
It was the one time in his closing remarks that Mr. Biden referred to his successor. Moments later, he boarded the blue and white 747 that had been known as Air Power One for 4 years when it carried the president. The aircraft will now not bear that title till Mr. Trump is on board as president. This time it was known as Particular Air Mission 46.
“I’ve been doing this for 50 years,” Mr. Biden mentioned, fascinated about how his administration can be remembered by future generations. “Historical past will decide what you probably did as one of the important contributions made by all of America.”
