After withdrawing from the race for a second term, Joe Biden has a strange role – both in his party’s election campaign and in his job as president. It is not an easy one for him.
Joe Biden hugs his daughter Ashley tightly after her speech and stays in her arms for several seconds. Then the US President wipes his eyes with a handkerchief and goes to the lectern. There, the 81-year-old clutches his heart while thousands of delegates in the hall cheer him. “Thank you, Joe,” they chant at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago. And later: “We love Joe.”
Yet it was precisely this party that urged its front man to withdraw from the election campaign because of his age and mental fitness. Some prominent Democrats who fought at the forefront for Biden’s exit are now sitting in the hall, clapping and celebrating Biden as someone who, in an act of human greatness, voluntarily made way for the next generation in the interests of the party. This distorts what actually happened. Biden refused to bow to pressure from his party for a long time. The wrangling over his departure became an undignified spectacle.
The party is trying to gloss over all of this at its meeting in Chicago, which is dedicated to the new presidential candidate Kamala Harris. But Biden will also be in a strange and thankless role in the coming months. This applies to the election campaign – and to his job in the White House.
The (non-)role in the election campaign
Immediately after his big appearance at the convention, Biden will take a long break and fly from Chicago to California. There he will spend the rest of the week without any public appointments. The fact that Biden will completely disappear during the rest of the convention speaks volumes. The Democrat has only appeared with Harris at a campaign rally once since he dropped out of the race in July. In general, he has made himself scarce in public.
One gets the impression that – after his many embarrassing appearances in recent months, which led to his withdrawal – the Democrats’ strategy for now is to keep the number of his appearances as low as possible. And with it the risk of further blunders that could harm Harris in the election campaign. In Chicago, Biden jokes that he will be the best volunteer campaign worker that Harris and her vice president Tim Walz have ever seen. But it is currently not foreseeable that Biden will play a key role in their election campaign.
For Harris, the record of their time in government together is problematic in some areas – for example on the issue of migration. In addition, after years in Biden’s shadow, she has to get used to her new role as number one. Therefore, she will probably try to keep some distance from her boss during the election campaign. After the confrontational weeks within the party up to Biden’s exit, the Democrats are also trying to demonstrate new unity. This is exactly what Biden’s appearance in Chicago is about, where he praised Harris: as tough, experienced, as a woman with character and integrity.
The role as president
Biden will remain president until January. But he is now what Americans call a “lame duck” – someone who is at the end of his term in office and has therefore dramatically lost power and influence. “I have five months left in my presidency,” Biden said in Chicago. “I have a lot to do.” And he intends to get it all done.
However, this is not so easy. The spotlight now belongs solely to Harris and the election campaign. The Democrats in Congress are primarily concerned with defending their own seats in parliament in the election. And international partners are also thinking more about how they can work together with a future US administration rather than initiating major initiatives with the outgoing incumbent.
This applies not only to Harris, but also to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, to whom several international heads of government have already made representations.
Biden will still likely try to work on his political legacy in the remaining months. He only managed to enter the White House on his third attempt – as the oldest US president ever. Perhaps the fact that it was so difficult for him to get there makes it harder to let go.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
