CHICAGO– Sixteen years ago, a triumphant Joe Biden he addressed an adoring crowd at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, his smile radiating confidence about the country’s future and his own journey.
The future vice president embraced his son Beau. He told how his own parents instilled in him a sense of perseverance and tenacity.
“Champ, when you get knocked down, get up,” he recalled his father, Joe, saying. Biden then repeated the lesson taught to him by his mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, who was in the audience: “Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.”
In 2024, Biden wasn’t forced to reconcile a failure of his presidency. He compiled a list of major accomplishments that will be felt for years to come. But he chose to give up his campaign under pressure from Democratic leaders, in a remarkable concession to the passage of time, as allies in his party and a clear majority of American adults concluded that the 81-year-old should not seek re-election. After Biden’s decision to leave the presidential race, his party not only forgave him, its leaders praised him.
So Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. comes to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week both honored and resigned.
Biden had consolidated his party’s support and had no serious competitor. But that support crumbled after a disastrous debate in June, when his weaknesses were put on glaring public display, underscoring his greatest handicap: that at his age he might no longer be suited to the job.
In Chicago, Biden decided to stand up again and show the difference between stepping aside and quitting. His vice president, Kamala Harrisis now in the spotlight as a nominee. For the president, it is the latest in a life marked by cycles of loss and recovery.
“He’s had wonderful things happen to him, but he’s also had terrible things happen to him,” said Ted Kaufman, his friend, former adviser and appointed successor in the Delaware Senate.
This story is based on interviews with advisers, colleagues and people who have worked with Biden in politics for more than half a century.
Biden arrived in the White House with the hope that a focus on the public interest could help heal the partisan malaise that emerged with the rise of former President Donald Trumpnow again the Republican candidate.
No one denied the ego required to pursue the White House. But those interviewed stressed that Biden sees his legacy more as a leader who, in a cynical era, could show that government was a force for good.
“It’s less about him,” said Stefanie Feldman, assistant to the president and White House staff secretary. “He wants people to understand that the federal government gets results.”
Biden has used his decades in the Senate to forge a bipartisan infrastructure deal. He signed legislation that allowed for deep investments in cutting-edge technologies and brokered a debt deal with Republicans to avoid a catastrophic default. Biden stressed last week that he lower prices about 10 of the most expensive Medicare prescription drugs.
He also helped restore confidence among old allies that the United States could be an unwavering partner, and led efforts to provide much-needed support to Ukraine in its war against a Russian invasion and to counter the rise of China.
He faced a pandemic, inflation, immigration problems, a broken supply chain and a difficult withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The experience he brought to the job — there’s no doubt about it — gave him the ability to accomplish things that no one thought he could accomplish,” said Anita Dunn, who served as a senior adviser. “But it’s not just experience. It’s relationships. It’s understanding how Congress works and how to engage members of Congress to get things done.”
But Americans did not always see the wisdom they had acquired, but the stiff, shuffling steps and the verbal struggles.
Born too early to qualify as a baby boomer, Biden’s political career arc has been one of remarkable success and stunning defeat. He was elected to the Delaware Senate at 29 but lost his wife and daughter in a car accident. He found a new partner in Jill and ran for president in the 1988 cycle but withdrew after allegations of plagiarism. He then battled serious health problems and survived two brain aneurysms.
His 2008 presidential campaign was a failure, but he did become President Barack Obama’s trusted No. 2. Then Beau died of brain cancer and his other son, Hunter, succumbed to drug addiction. Against all odds, Biden won the Democratic nomination in 2020 and went on to defeat Trump, only to see his party choose someone else to run against his predecessor this year.
Aides recall Biden being told years ago that China’s economic growth would be positive because it would lower prices for consumers, even if that meant moving more production overseas. “If it helps the consumer and hurts the worker, we’ve got a problem,” Biden told them at the time.
Biden was so focused on middle-class jobs that he ironically saw his presidency defined by the public’s desire for lower prices. Inflation was a symptom of global disruptions caused by the pandemic and war, as well as government spending meant to stabilize the economy for workers, which helped fuel a historic surge in hiring.
The hard logic is that Biden has designed his presidency with an eye toward what America might look like in 10 years.
Even though he personally believed he could beat Trump, the potential defeat risked wiping out his tax breaks, which were meant to help shift the country away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy and electric vehicles.
A loss would mean potentially deeper tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. A Trump return to the White House could mean the unraveling of alliances Biden has built.
Even when Biden emerged from political retirement in 2020, seeing Trump’s movement as a threat to democracy, the former president remained a defining presence in American politics. Trump had inspired deep loyalty among many voters, who made their opposition to Biden visible with protests he could see from the presidential limousine.
“This may be the biggest piece of unfinished business of his administration,” Dunn said. “He’s raised the issues so that they’re a concern to voters, and that’s ultimately how democracies deal with them.”
Biden had told voters he needed a second term to “get the job done.” But a president’s work is never really done, a lesson made clear by some of the portraits of other presidents that Biden displayed in the Oval Office.
George Washington served two terms and left behind a country in its infancy, full of potential and danger. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated before he could win peace after the end of the Civil War. Franklin D. Roosevelt did not live to see victory in World War II.
Unlike Lyndon Johnson in 1968, Biden’s second-term hopes weren’t dashed by an unpopular war and violence in the American streets. Unlike Harry Truman in 1952, he wasn’t felled by a primary challenge.
But now that Biden is retired, perhaps he will get lucky again and behold the future he created in his four years as president.