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For 1333 days, President Joe Biden was the only one, he repeatedly insisted, who could possibly defeat former president Donald Trump again.
He shrugged off his promise to be a bridge to a new generation. He told anyone who would listen that he was the best choice for Democrats even as inflation soared and his approval rating plunged. His faith in himself remained unshaken by the increasingly obvious impact of his age, which left him unable to make an effective case against Trump.
On Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), Biden watched from the White House residence as voters rejected Vice President Kamala Harris and ushered Trump back into power for another four years. Biden, who repeatedly warned about the danger that Trump poses, is left with the reality that his predecessor is now his successor, chosen with what is likely to be a majority of the popular vote.
Joe Biden’s legacy will now come into question following Kamala Harris’ crushing defeat.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
Among his closest allies, Biden will be remembered as the person who vanquished Trump in 2020 and ended his own reelection campaign for the good of the country. But many Democrats are already casting him in a much different, and deeply unflattering, light: as a one-term president who set his party on a path to failure in 2024.
“He was supposed to be the bridge, a transition bridge for the next generation of Democrats,” said Douglas Brinkley, a veteran presidential historian. Instead, Brinkley said, he “blew up the bridge” by not getting out of the 2024 presidential race sooner.
Trump’s return to power is now destined to be at the centre of Biden’s legacy.
Historians will debate for years how much responsibility Biden bears for that result. But some things are already clear. Despite a half-century in politics, the president fundamentally misjudged the American electorate and underestimated its willingness to embrace Trump and his authoritarian behaviour, legal transgressions and vows of retribution.
Biden’s decision in early 2023 to pursue a second term at the age of 80 denied Democrats the chance for a robust debate about who would be the best person to prevent the former president from returning to office for a second term. Biden waited so long to abandon his reelection bid that Harris effectively inherited the nomination without having to ask voters their opinion.
Leaders in the party, including former President Barack........