The Washington Post editorial board wrote on Saturday that history might be kinder to President Biden, whose presidency is “unpopular now,” as only one-third of the country views him favorably.
“Many Americans now associate Biden with inflation (though it has cooled), a porous southern border that allowed millions of migrants through, a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, a broken promise to not pardon his son and, most of all, his stubborn determination to seek a second term he wasn’t up for — none of which improved his popularity,” the editorial board wrote under the headline, “Biden’s presidency is unpopular now. History might be kinder.”
The president will officially leave office on Monday, as President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated and begin his second term as president.
The Post listed several of the president’s accomplishments, including “shepherding the country out of the pandemic, rolling out vaccines, helping to guide the economy to a soft landing,” and “installing the first African American woman on the Supreme Court.”
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Columnists, pundits and political commentators have spoken out on the president’s legacy as he prepares to exit, suggesting that Biden’s refusal to drop out of the race sooner, and the fact that Trump was elected to a second term, would be what Americans remember most.
The editorial board lamented that much of what the president enacted in his four years would be undone by the president-elect.
“Other Biden initiatives appear doomed to lapse, along with Biden’s guiding philosophy. The incoming administration will probably roll back Pentagon policies that allow access to abortion and protections for transgender athletes. Biden’s noble support for institutions and norms is likely to dissipate as well; a restive electorate seems to view it as a defense of an unpopular status quo,” the board wrote.
The editorial board also argued that Biden might have succeeded in “lowering the national temperature.”
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“As the 2024 results demonstrated, many Americans have been happy enough that Biden, not Trump, was president these past four years. He might have struggled to bridge partisan divides and failed to make himself popular, but he succeeded in lowering the national temperature — for a while,” they wrote.
The Washington Post editorial board was prepared to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election but was shut down by the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, who decided late in the cycle that the paper would no longer endorse presidential candidates.
Bezos repeatedly defended the decision, but several Washington Post staffers quit in protest.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
