Biden leaves office nostalgic about five-decade career, and frustrated by how it ended

President Joe Biden wears the Distinguished Public Service medal as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin walks in the background during a Department of Defense Commander in Chief farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Evan Vucci/AP)

Washington (CNN) — As President Joe Biden was making one final lap around town this week, delivering farewell speeches to his diplomatic corps, military leaders and the nation at large, his appearances belied a grim reality: This is not how he’d hoped his half-century career in Washington would end.

Biden leaves office on Monday reluctantly, firm in the view he had more to give and more to accomplish, if less sure his health and vigor would have kept up.

He’ll bring with him a record of accomplishment but also lingering resentment over the way his political career ended. He no longer speaks regularly with some onetime allies who pushed him from the race; many in his party blame him for handing the White House to Donald Trump. And he’ll depart amid a strained relationship with his No. 2 and replacement on the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris.

The capital city that will recede from view as he departs on his helicopter is now the domain of his archrival Trump, whose return to Washington is the very outcome Biden sought most to prevent. Instead of being remembered as an American statesman who vanquished Trump once and for all, as he thought he had after his 2020 victory, he’ll be seen as an interim president between two administrations led by a man he once labeled a fascist and a threat to democracy.

“While my term in office is ending, the work continues,” Biden said in a speech to mayors on Friday, one of his last public appearances as president. “Your work continues.”

Biden’s single term was an eventful one.

He navigated the country out of a generation-defining pandemic, but with a spike in inflation, fueled in part by his stimulus spending, that prevented the national mood from fully improving.

He ended Trump-era immigration policies he deemed inhumane, but a surge in illegal crossings at the U.S. southern border strained state resources and led to backlash, and he eventually restored many of the same restrictions.

His decision to end the nation’s longest war meant he is the first president in decades not to hand the Afghanistan conflict to his successor. But the withdrawal was deadly and chaotic, and left many Americans questioning his competence.

U.S. alliances were restored through common cause when Russia invaded Ukraine. But the war grinds on, without a clear endgame. In the Middle East, an eleventh-hour ceasefire was struck in Gaza in exchange for hostages, but he must begrudgingly share credit with Trump for getting the deal finished.

New investments in American infrastructure and manufacturing have created thousands of new jobs and invigorated new industries. But even in Biden’s own telling, the benefits of his record won’t be borne out for years to come.

He restored a degree of normalcy to the presidency after Trump’s norm-busting years but ignored public sentiment about his advanced age and broke a pledge by pardoning his son, Hunter.

‘The seeds are planted’

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., who arrived in Washington as the nation’s youngest senator in 1972 and leaves as the country’s oldest president, hopes the history books remember the positives and buff out the negatives from his White House tenure once his policies take hold and American can reap the benefits of his many accomplishments.

“It will take time to feel the full impact of all we’ve done together. But the seeds are planted and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come,” he said Wednesday evening during a 19-minute farewell address from the Oval Office.

The speech surprised many Biden allies for what it was not: a laundry list of accomplishments to burnish a one-term legacy. Instead, Biden used much of his remarks to warn against a burgeoning “tech-industrial complex,” run by oligarchs and eroding democratic institutions. (Critics noted that Biden and his fellow Democrats have long relied on the financial support of billionaires, including from Silicon Valley and Wall Street.)

But that doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking about his place in the ranks of America’s 45 other presidents. In the waning days of his presidency, Biden is awash in sentiment, mindful of his legacy.

He has taken a flurry of executive actions to try cementing his agenda before Trump’s arrival, including on the environment, immigration and foreign affairs. He’s issued dozens of pardons and thousands of commutations and is still weighing whether to grant preemptive pardons to some political allies who may face prosecution in the new Trump era.

He walks down memory lane even more often than normal, advisers say, as he feverishly works to remind people of accomplishments that he believes haven’t been adequately recognized. His mood inside the West Wing, advisers say, vacillates from agitated to nostalgic.

“He’s forever frustrated we didn’t tell a good enough story about what the administration did,” a senior White House official told CNN. “His grievance is about not getting his due.”

Allies argue history will look more favorably on his presidency as the policies he put in motion bear fruit.

“I think historians are not gonna be dealing with sound bites and whether or not you mangled a preposition or phrase,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina) told CNN. “They’re going to deal with the substance, and on substance, I think you’re going to find that Joe Biden is going to be treated very, very well.”

What’s left unmentioned, at least directly to Biden, are his own shortcomings as a communicator and the possibility that he could’ve boosted his legacy — and his party’s chance at victory — by foregoing his reelection bid, or ending it much sooner than he did.

Biden and his family remain stung that so many of their Democratic friends, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seemed to abandon Biden after his botched debate against Trump in June.

“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” first lady Jill Biden told the Washington Post this week. “I learned a lot about human nature.”

Since the November election, Biden has privately suggested to some friends and allies that he believes he could have defeated Trump had some party leaders not pushed him aside. A Democratic lawmaker said the president also made the comment during a holiday party at the White House in a moment that was “awkward and clearly misguided,” the lawmaker said.

This year, Biden also began sharing those thoughts aloud, telling USA Today in an exit interview: “It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, based on the polling.”

The polling, of course, showed no such thing.

Tensions with Harris

Every time Biden says he could have beaten Trump, it’s a fresh reminder that Harris did not, which has added fresh tension to an already complicated relationship between the two in the waning days of their White House partnership.

“It’s a sign of disrespect whether he intends it or not,” a former Harris adviser told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak openly about the frayed dynamic between the two and many of their longtime loyalists.

Biden hasn’t intended his comments to be viewed that way, aides say, and has not openly criticized Harris or the campaign she ran. Yet his comments, made repeatedly, have nonetheless rubbed many Democrats the wrong way.

After the USA Today interview was published last week, Biden and Harris had a conversation about his comments about the election, two people familiar with the matter said. Two days later, Biden slightly adjusted his language when asked by reporters about whether he truly believed he could have defeated Trump.

“I think I would have beaten Trump, could’ve beaten Trump,” Biden said. “I think Kamala could have beaten Trump, would have beaten Trump.”

It was an answer that still infuriated some advisers and admirers of Harris, who went to great lengths to demonstrate her loyalty to Biden by not criticizing or distancing herself from him during her 107-day presidential campaign.

“She was loyal to her detriment,” a separate former Harris adviser said, also speaking on condition of anonymity because the vice president has urged her associates to treat Biden with grace as he leaves office.

But his words have rocketed around message groups and conversations, particularly his chosen language when asked whether Harris should run again in 2028 for the Democratic nomination.

“I think she’s competent to run again in four years,” Biden told reporters late last week. “That’d be a decision for her to make.”

For her part, Harris has stood by the president’s side — in the Cross Hall, as Biden announced a Middle East ceasefire deal, and seated in the Oval Office, just a few paces away from the Resolute Desk, as he delivered a farewell primetime address to the nation.

A senior Democratic adviser who is close to Biden and Harris said their relationship “is just fine,” but was naturally complicated when she returned to the White House after being the candidate. The adviser compared the dynamic to Al Gore and Bill Clinton in the closing days of their time together.

“Stepping back into the No. 2 role is always hard,” the Democratic adviser said. “Trump makes it even harder.”

Several Democratic leaders, including members of Congress, said they were eager for the party and the country to move on from the painful election losses of 2024.

“It’s over now, so it kind of doesn’t really matter, does it?” said Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California. “This is our reality and we have to move forward. I’m not even thinking about any of that.”

Rep. Summer Lee, Democrat of Pennsylvania, said there was little to gain by focusing on the president’s comments or the historic Biden-to-Harris candidate swap last summer.

“I find it doesn’t quite matter what Biden thinks he could have done or couldn’t have done. Or anybody else,” Lee told CNN. “What’s the point of focusing on it? Woulda, coulda, shoulda. We lost the election.”

In some ways, how Harris and Biden have spent their final days in the White House reflect the divergent paths they will take once they are no longer serving alongside one another.

Biden, after serving in public office for the better part of the past half-century, will enter private life having recently become a great-grandfather. His focus will turn, in part, to raising the millions of dollars needed to build a presidential library. He is likely to write a new book.

“I’m not going to be out of sight or out of mind,” Biden told reporters last week, though how he plans to make his voice heard in the months and years after departing office is unknown.

Harris, 22 years Biden’s junior, faces a different set of decisions. Few believe her political career to be over; after an evaluation period she could potentially launch a 2026 bid for California governor — or even make another run for the presidency in 2028.

“It is not my nature to go quietly into the night,” she told staffers Thursday as she signed her desk at the White House, a tradition stretching back decades. “So don’t worry about that.”

CNN’s Annie Grayer contributed to this report.

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