Even when he was a youthful phenomenon on the clubbier Capitol Hill of the early 1970s, Joe Biden never possessed the snappy eloquence of his enduring political hero, Robert F Kennedy.
His faltering speech and delivery were elevated from a spring concern among Democratic insiders to a summer crisis that ultimately forced him out of the election race last July. Age haunted him. Donald Trump taunted him, with savage effectiveness.
Having been spurred by the vanity of a two-term legacy, Biden will now leave the White House on Sunday at 82, closing a half century of prominent public service as a diminished figure and accompanied by the lowest approval rating of his presidency.
But in his farewell address, delivered on an icy Wednesday night in Washington, the exiting president might just have risen to find, in the wreckage of his final year, a speech of lasting significance: a presidential moment. His 20-minute address carried two or three lines capable of travelling through the decades ahead, and it was framed around a clear warning to Americans of the concerns he has for the future of their country.
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“I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern,” Biden told those watching.
“And that’s the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. Today an oligarchy is taking shape in America, of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
There was more.
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Social media is giving up on fact checking. Truth is being smothered by lies.”
The decor of the Oval Office leaves it suspended outside of time. The rich gold curtains, the flags, the family photos and the French panes revealing a White House skyline that on this night was funereal black: this was the backdrop to the Biden address.
When Ronald Reagan was leaving, after eight years in office, he claimed a place among the more celebrated goodbyes by describing the United States, in his folksy way, as “a shining city upon a hill”.
Biden presented his vision of the country with one last wistful glance at his enduring faith in the “idea of America”, settling on the motif of the Statue of Liberty, on the edge of the southern tip of Manhattan.
“She is built to sway back and forth, to withstand the fury of stormy weather, to stand the test of time because storms are always coming. She sways a few inches but she never falls into the currents below. An engineering marvel. The Statue of Liberty is also an enduring symbol of the soul of our nation,” he said before sounding a more ominous note.
“No president is immune from crimes if he or she commits them while in office. The president’s power is not unlimited. It is not absolute. It shouldn’t be. And in a democracy, there is another danger – the concentration of power and wealth. It erodes a sense of unity and common purpose. It causes distrust and division.
“Participating in our democracy becomes exhausting and even disillusioning. People don’t feel like they have a fair shot. We have to stay engaged in the process. I know it’s frustrating. A fair shot is what makes ‘America’ America. Everyone is entitled to a fair shot, not a guarantee, just a fair shot, an even playing field. Going as far as your talent will take you. We can never lose that essential truth to remain who we are.”
Biden’s address coincided with the afternoon announcement of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the exchange of hostages. The president opened his address by crediting the year-long efforts of his administration to arrive at this moment.
But he has to live with the ineffectiveness of those negotiations over a year that has led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, and the failure to secure hostage releases.
Donald Trump’s bullish assertion on Wednesday that the “epic ceasefire agreement could only have happened as a result of our historic victory in November” offers an alternative account. And Biden will be a citizen watching on television when Trump is there to greet the returning American hostages in the weeks ahead.
Meanwhile, the confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill this week have underlined, to a staggering degree, the post-election impotence of the Democratic Party. There has been a marked failure to lay a glove on any of Trump’s nominees for administration posts to date.
Minutes after Biden’s address was over, Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary, said in an interview that “we couldn’t be more pleased by how things have gone on Capitol Hill these last two days. Democrats have not yet found a cure to Trump-derangement syndrome, and their party is still in disarray”.
It was hard to disagree with that assessment. The Democrats are still scrambling from the fallout of the election. In the Washington Post this week, first lady Jill Biden hinted at the shattered alliances by saying of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s role in urging Biden to renounce his nomination thus: “We were friends for 50 years. It was a disappointment.”
Equally, the full story of the degree to which Biden’s frailties and declining powers were shielded from public scrutiny has yet to be told.
Biden’s desire to be president was quixotic and seemed to have passed when his opportunity finally arrived. In a curious way, the emergence of Trump revived that one last ambition. Biden believed he had seen Trump off but instead his administration is perceived as an interregnum in the political age of Donald Trump.
The president’s closing address was wisely brief on his considerable domestic achievements – the infrastructure law, the creation of a record 16 million jobs, climate and green energy laws. “It will take time to feel the full effect of all we have done ... but the seeds are planted,” he said.
And that may well prove to be the case. Inflation, the border and the shame of Gaza have eclipsed his domestic successes. The darker truth is that Biden’s farewell address will acquire its full potency only if the worst fears and warnings of the second Trump administration come to pass.
Only then will those among the electorate who discover the campaign promises have not tallied with the realities – that the prices won’t come back, nor the rust fall from the derelict machine plants in the midwest, that you can’t turn back time after all – look back at old Joe’s lonely Wednesday night fireside chat and think: maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. And it was to the people that he gave his final thoughts.
“After 50 years of public service, I give you my word: I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands, a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure. Now, it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America. You love it too. God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Thank you for this great honour.”
That was the gambit. Even Biden’s worst critics could hardly deny that he is dewy-eyed in his love for the US and the epic, if violent, sweep of its journey through democracy. He has always carried with him the joyful image of his childhood self and he gave him one last chance to skip around the Oval Office on Wednesday, “the kid with the stutter” who somehow rose from an everyday Delaware house to sit behind this desk.
Meanwhile, Biden’s son, Hunter, whose complicated and law-entangled story severely hindered Biden’s time in office, sat in the shadow of the Oval Office, there to support his father. Family is family. Also present were vice-president Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff.
By 10pm, a few photographs of the audience seated while Joe Biden spoke at the executive desk had been published. There was something shockingly lonely about the images.
So that’s it. Joe Biden, the 46th president, leaves after one term, head held high and trusting that time will present a more flattering account of his four years in the White House.
You could say that this is no country for old men, but next up to bat is a 78-year-old man. And as he will tell you himself, he has never been more popular.
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