President Biden has less than a week to go until his one-term presidency ends, and he is feeling reflective.
He is voicing regrets about his decision not to sign his name to Covid relief checks and about his longtime reputation — once considered a virtue — of being the poorest lawmaker in Congress. And now, with a planned visit to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican next month, the president is signaling that he may have additional issues on his mind.
The visit, White House officials said as they issued a readout on Mr. Biden’s call with the pope last week, is officially to discuss world peace. But according to a person familiar with his plans for the trip, Mr. Biden is also going to the Holy See to seek solace and “relief” as he exits the world stage. Pope Francis, that person said, has become an ally and sounding board, trading occasional phone calls with Mr. Biden.
Some of those conversations have been casual check-ins of the “Hey, how you doing?” variety.
Throughout his long career, Mr. Biden’s penchant for narrating his life experiences has shaped how the public understands him. We know the stories: Childhood struggles with a stutter created a scrappy, bully-fighting neighborhood crusader. Mistakes and bad timing upended earlier attempts at the nation’s highest office. And the devastating losses of his first wife and two children created a wellspring of resilience.
But the regrets he has let slip in the lame-duck portion of his presidency are different from the traditional Biden lore he spun on his way up the ladder. As he makes his way down, his recent comments and actions reveal more about Mr. Biden’s thoughts on the current political landscape, one that is drastically different from the one he entered after winning his first Senate election in 1972.
Despite being described by his allies as in a pensive, sometimes angry, mood as the end of his term approaches, the president has not made himself available to answer many questions about his recent actions, including his decision to pardon his son Hunter. Still, in public appearances, he has offered a few glimpses into what has weighed on him.
Earlier this month, in remarks at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Mr. Biden spoke about his long-held belief that the key to strengthening the American economy is through bolstering the middle class. But he paused just long enough to touch on a story that he has shared countless times as a candidate and office holder. “For 36 years, I was listed as the poorest man in Congress,” he told the crowd with a laugh, before adding, “What a foolish man.”
Given the current atmosphere, the joke carried the sting of bitter truth. The billionaires are at the White House gates, ushered in by voters who were again siding with a wealthy man whose politics are antithetical to Mr. Biden’s.
In a month, Washington will be led again by Donald J. Trump, a man who has made no secret of his wealth or his appreciation for the wealth of others. One of his top advisers, Elon Musk, is by some counts the richest man in the world, and his first act of (unelected) political business this month was to try to goad congressional Republicans into a government shutdown.
Aside from joking about his wealth, Mr. Biden has openly stewed over one of Mr. Trump’s flashier — and apparently effective — stunts as president. During the same speech at Brookings, Mr. Biden said he had been “stupid” not to sign his name to Covid stimulus checks that were distributed to Americans early in his term. Mr. Trump emblazoned his signature on checks distributed after a relief bill was passed in the spring of 2020.
Mr. Biden and his advisers learned a little something from Mr. Trump’s tendency to scrawl his name on things. By 2023, signs touting infrastructure projects “funded by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” began popping up around the country. But those had little political impact compared with a signed check. Already, misleading stories are circulating on social media about Mr. Trump possibly bringing stimulus checks back in 2025, despite the fact that the president-elect has not detailed plans to issue more money.
Perhaps more revealing about Mr. Biden’s list of regrets are the items that do not appear on it. The president does not regret debating Mr. Trump in June, an appearance that created a slow bleed in his support among Democrats and ended with his ouster as the party’s presidential nominee. Mr. Biden has privately told allies that he only regrets not changing the timing because he had a cold, and believes he would have performed better if he had been in better health.
Mr. Biden has also not voiced much public regret for deciding to call his economic plan “Bidenomics,” though he has privately groused to allies about his dislike of the name. And while his administration has acknowledged mistakes during the chaotic and deadly troop pullout in Afghanistan in 2021, Mr. Biden does not regret pushing forward with the withdrawal.
- Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent. For much of the past decade, she has focused on features about the presidency, the first family, and life in Washington
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