Analysis: The outgoing US president is seeking to define his presidency as more than just the lead-up to Kamala Harris’s defeat.

Independent cousin

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

President Joe Biden is in the section. Less than a week between him and his departure from the White House, Washington and, in all likelihood, the American political scene in general.

He works overtime and describes, according to his situations, an inheritance he once realized he would still have 4 years to build. But his broader American Party and the American Global Politician do not seem to agree with a vision that, increasingly, is now an illusion.

To draw this symbol of his mandate in the White House, the president has selected two more addresses this week. One occurred on Monday, from now on workers of the United States Department of State, aimed at the global presence of the United States with Joe Biden to the helm. A second, your farewell address will be delivered on Wednesday in possible hours.

Both offered a much rosier view of their admin functionality than even some on their account are willing to allow. And they have a shared goal: to make Biden’s presidency mean something more in Americans’ minds than just being Kamala Harris’ opposite defeat to Donald Trump.

“Today, I can report to the American people, our sources of national power are far stronger than they were when we took office,” said Biden on Monday, adding that America’s adversaries were conversely “weaker than they were when we came into this job four years ago.”

He was going to boast that “he left the next administration with a very strong hand to play”, with “an America that once returned, a unit of the countries, building the agenda, bringing our plans and our missions to the combination of others , “And the one who is no longer at war. “

In truth, the American public of what “in war” has dramatically replaced, leaving Biden behind. No, the American service member is involved in direct struggle missions, however, the Pentagon has just admitted that the number of troops in Syria is twice what had been reported per month. Meanwhile, the US Navy continues to collide with the huti forces in the waters around Yemen and the US forces helped intercept missiles shot through Iran in Israel in October.

An attack of the media in its last days has also undermined this image. On Sunday, the 60 minutes of CBS broadcast a giant investigation into the role of the United States at the Israeli headquarters of Gaza, transmitting shocking photographs of young young people who play with an unplanned recipe through the United States and other debris of the Weapons D ‘through the weapons provided by the United States. Former state department officials told the network that they had hurried to avoid relaunching alarms for human rights violations.

On MSNBC, the network that hired Biden’s former press secretary to put on a show, prime-time opinion anchor Chris Hayes denounced the president last week for leaving “an embarrassing legacy” with his virtually unwavering for Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s government for beyond the year. This “caused unprecedented pain to the liberal foreign order,” Hayes explained, as he claimed undermined U. S. condemnations of human rights abuses in places like China and Russia.

The president will provide his point of view on the night of domestic politics. However, this component of his heritage is accompanied by a wonderful asterisk: Donald Trump. Did the new president return to Washington once back with unified control of Congress?

This consultation is related to the truth that Trump aims to make a great expulsion program in force when assuming the position, and with a republican congress, it is probably also to point to transgender Americans. Republicans are aimed The outgoing president controlled cycle 2024.

Biden himself made sure that the blame would come last week with a pair of statements claiming that the election had been winnable despite his resolve to run for reelection until July, as he eventually parted ways after a disastrous debate performance.

The president told reporters that he “would have beaten Trump, could have beaten Trump”, then echoed those comments in a USA Today interview even while admitting that he wasn’t sure he could have served a full second term. Pod Save America’s Tommy Vietor called Biden’s answers “delusional thinking”.

No longer the speaker he was five years ago and not lacking in his own party’s maximum, Joe Biden is fighting an uphill war to write his final chapter.

The continued silence of Kamala Harris, his vice president, makes the situation all the more uncertain for him. As she writes her own future, the woman called in at the last minute to replace the 46th president — who ran her campaign for just 107 days — may be the one to finish his as well.

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in