WashingtonPost columnist Matt Bai on Monday criticized President Biden for clinging to power for too long, saying the president’s legacy would be that he “didn’t know when to leave.”
“After a lifetime of noble service, he will be remembered – like so many in his generation – above all as a man who did not know when to leave.” Bai wrote.
The president dropped out of the 2024 race in late July, about a month after a poor debate performance against newly elected President Donald Trump in June. Vice President Kamala Harris took over the Democratic presidential campaign and ultimately lost.
“By the time Biden took the stage for his debate with Trump in June, it was clear that history had been hijacked by a dangerous delusion — a delusion shared and fueled by his senior aides and even by the reporters who served him most were watching closely,” Bai wrote. , after noting that Biden did deserve credit for his legislative achievements.
Washington Post columnist Matt Bai said President Biden’s legacy would be that he “didn’t know when to leave.” (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Bai described what might have been Biden’s thought process in the final year of his presidency, saying he did not want to cede power.
‘Then there was the difficult problem of who exactly would succeed him. After rallying around Vice President Kamala Harris in the tumultuous, racially charged summer of 2020 despite her rather abysmal showing as a short-lived presidential candidate, Democratic leaders and Biden’s own aides worried she might not win (a competitive primary had that question of course, but modern democrats are terrified of any process they cannot orchestrate.)” Bai wrote.
The columnist also shared that despite terrible approval ratings, Biden thought he was the best option to beat Trump. After Harris lost, the president reportedly felt regret dropping outand still believed he would have defeated Trump.
Even now, in the final hours of Biden’s term, it is impossible to look at him and think: here is a man who should have run for president again. Twenty years later, it will rank among the most self-evidently foolish acts of denial that any incumbent party has ever committed,” he continued.
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President Joe Biden speaks at a reception for new Democratic members of Congress in the State Dining Room of the White House, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
“While (Gerald) Ford and (George HW) Bush each received the Profile in Courage Award presented by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Carter won the Nobel Prize, Biden will, I fear, have to content himself with a train station in Wilmington , Delaware, and a rest area on Interstate 95,” Bai concluded.
Just days after Harris’ loss, Bai shouted the president and his closest aides for preaching the message: “You don’t really see what you think you see.”
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“Biden has always served his country capably and with integrity. However, I’m not sure we can say the same for the Democratic aides and leaders who thought voters might distrust their own experiences,” he wrote in a Nov. 1 speech. 8 column.
