Joe Biden’s legacy may have been stained had he not stepped aside. How will history view him now?

By Bruce Wolpe, University of Sydney

Will his decision to step aside seal Joe Biden’s legacy as US president?

Three weeks ago, Biden suffered a political catastrophe. Biden’s team had been surprised that Donald Trump had agreed to an early presidential debate in late June, and under rules that favoured Biden: no studio audience, just the two candidates, and muted microphones.

Biden urgently needed to change the trajectory of the race. He was at best tied with Trump nationally, but slipping in the key swing states that determined the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He wanted to show that Trump was extreme, unhinged and unfit for office – a profound threat, in his eyes, to America’s democracy.

Trump wanted to prove that Biden was physically and mentally infirm and unable to fulfill a second term in office, much less his existing one.

Then Biden froze, lapsed, drifted and muttered. Trump was able to execute his game plan perfectly.

https://www.youtube.com/live/-v-8wJkmwBY?si=4oial4UO6dDLHRUg

In the days that followed, Biden immediately began haemorrhaging support from Democrats more than worried – terrified – that Biden would be unable to defeat Trump, and could cause the Democrats to lose the House and Senate, as well. Democrats were peering into an abyss.

Until Sunday morning in the United States, the Biden team was consistently and fiercely pushing back against calls for him to drop out. They insisted he would not be dissuaded from his view that he was the strongest person to go after Trump and defeat him. Reports emerged that Biden was deeply hurt, angry and resentful of being challenged from within the party, and that he was not at all convinced by the polls showing him losing more key states than he won in 2020.

Biden saw no legitimacy in being denied the nomination when he won millions of votes in the Democratic primaries this year and virtually all the votes of the convention delegates. He vowed to resume campaigning after his bout of COVID.

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