In November 2020, it became a hero for many. He had won the American elections and saved the country of a second mandate in the White House. Today, many see the former democratic president of the United States as a villain, for two fundamental reasons: because he did not do what he promised and because what he did was not enough.
We are going to focus on the first. He said he would be a “transition” president, he knew that he would have finished his second legislature at age 86 if he had won, so he advanced that he would deliver power to a successor with enough time for the 2024 elections. But he did not. Not up to three and a half weeks after its disappointing performance in a debate with Trump. 107 exact days of the elections. Today just a year ago from that step to the side. “I think it is in the best interest of my party and the country to withdraw and focus only on fulfilling my duties as president during the rest of my mandate,” he left.
By then, it was too late for his usual primary process to be carried out. Biden appointed her vice president as her successor and formation, not to break ranks, he endorsed her, but with division of opinions: for the little time to prepare her as an aspiring, because there were profiles that liked more, because there were veterans pushing, because there were rookies pushing, because she was, deep down, a continuation of that administration droves that had become so antipathatic for the Americans.
The rest is History: Donald Trump recovered the presidency with the best data for a Republican in two decades and there it is ,. Everyone, except their most faithful followers, believe that this mandate is already much worse than the first. In his presidency he is being forgotten amid the horror of seeing the US democratic institutions attacked by an authoritarian leader, determined to undo Biden’s policies, especially about climate change or health.
After a year, the question is where President Biden is now already dedicated his retirement. The answer is simple: he is dedicated to living without hurry, something that has not done almost in his life, because he entered politics in 1972. He has left an exhausting mandate, in which he had to deal with the consequences of a pandemic managed from denialism and chaos by Trump, to which they joined later, for example, the wars of Ukraine and Gaza or gallopal inflation. He has to recover and, above all, heal from the prostate cancer he suffers ,.
Biden’s life is simple. It takes place between its residences of Delaware (his usual, the one that had to register the FBI in search of classified documents that took into his time as vice president), Santa Ynez (California) and Malibu (also in California, where one of his children lives, which he pardoned shortly before leaving the Oval Office). He is seen with certain frequency in beneficial and cultural acts, such as fundraising from his local church, opera premieres in New York or Washington and some exhibition. He is usually accompanied by his wife, Jill, who was decisive in his decision to throw in the towel and not compete again for the White House. She convinced her to put her, absolutely questioned, to partisan fights.
The former president is seen with relative frequency in the social networks of his six grandchildren, offspring of the children who are alive (in addition to Hunter are Ashley and Naomi; Beau died of cancer in 2015). From time to time they put videos and photos with their grandfather acting as a grandfather, something for which he had less time when he occupied the US presidency.
Even so, the Democrat is not disconnected from today and has demonstrated it several times. For example, he traveled in April to Rome for him, a pontiff with which he agreed in power until January 20. He was seen in good shape, with a firm step, next to his wife. In addition, Biden has granted various in -depth interviews (the first, in May,) in which he has reviewed his management.
Joe and Jill Biden, at the funeral of Pope Francis, on April 26, 2025, in the Plaza de San Pedro del Vaticano.
He has also replicated Trump for some of his policies or statements. On April 16, in his first speech outside the position, Feroz resurfaced, accusing the Republican of having “destroyed” the American social security system. “In less than 100 days, this new administration has caused so much damage and so much destruction. It is really impressive,” said Biden during the National Conference of Activists, Counselors and Representatives for Disability, held in Chicago. “They shoot first and point later,” he said. “They want to destroy it to be able to steal it. Why do you want to steal it? To give tax cuts to billionaires and large corporations,” he added for about 30 minutes of speech, in which Trump did not quote him more than by allusions.
On June 5, it was even harder, because he described as “ridiculous” and “false” the accusations made by Trump and his order to investigate the validity of the executive and pardon orders signed by Biden during his mandate (2021-2025). The current president believes that the former was not in his bockals, that his cognitive level was precarious and that he did not basically know what he was signing, to the point that they gave him a car that he signed for him. “Let’s be clear: I made decisions during my presidency. I made decisions about pardons, executive orders, legislation and proclamations. Any insinuation that I did not do it is ridiculous and false,” Biden said in a statement.
In his opinion, “this is nothing more than a distraction of Donald Trump and the Republicans of Congress, who work to promote disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs such as Medicaid and increase costs for US families.” This investigation has not yet prospered nor is there public evidence that has endorsed Trump’s statement.
A CANCER WITH SHADOWS
Biden’s announcement about his diagnosis of prostate cancer, in spring, put it in the front line of headlines for more than the purely informative: he revived the debate on the health problems facing the US former president while he was in the White House. In his first statement, he indicated that he knew what was happening after consulting with a doctor by urinary symptoms. It also has bone metastases, which complicates treatment more.
It has a 9 Gleason score (grade 5 group), which in these types of cancer means that it is highly aggressive and has a high risk of propagation. Gleason score is used to evaluate the aggressiveness of prostate cancer, and a 9 indicates that cancer cells look very different from normal prostate cells and are growing rapidly. “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, cancer seems to be sensitive to hormones, which allows effective treatment,” their own said in a statement.
Some doctors expressed their surprise due to the fact that the aggressive form of cancer that Biden suffers, which has spread to their bones, would not have been detected before. Others pointed out that cancers can grow rapidly without the patient presenting symptoms and that men over 70 years of age do not undergo routine detection tests. To the first reading is to which Trump cling to harm.
The news was known in parallel to the publication of Original Sin (Original sin), a book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, which reveals that Biden could not recognize the Hollywood actor and Democratic donor, or remember the names of his key advisors during his last year in office. The authors wrote: “Biden’s physical deterioration, more evident in his hesitant walk, had become so serious that there were internal debates about the possibility of putting the president in a wheelchair, but they could not do it until after the elections.”
The actor himself and director published a tribune in the New York Times in which, without citing that episode, he asked the president to step aside to renew the candidacy. “This is not just my opinion; it is the opinion of all the congressmen and governors with whom I have spoken in private,” he explained, calling Biden “friend.” On 11 days of that publication, the president paid attention to him.
The advertising generated by the book forced the high -ranking Democrats to answer questions about why they did not do more to clarify the concerns of Americans about Biden’s health during their campaign for re -election. The conclusion is almost unanimous: “It was a mistake that the Democrats did not listen to voters before,” Senator Chris Murphy summarizes.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris embrace on the stage of the Chicago Democratic Convention, last summer
What is to come
The newspaper He has launched these days a special in which he tries to resolve the lagoons that generated Biden’s decision to retire so late. And he assumes that he cannot still respond to what happened a year ago.
But still sheds some light. He states that it was the advisors of Biden who forced him to debate in the CNN before the date usually chosen in the preparations of the electoral campaigns, in an attempt to dry the comments on the poor health of the president those weeks. “The sooner I can discuss, the better, so that the American people can see you with Trump and show the strength of your leadership, compared to Trump’s weakness and chaos,” Biden’s advisors wrote in the memorandum they sent him. Mistake. It was just the opposite.
Biden took 24 days to make the decision to leave the presidential race. Why so much? Because he tried to overcome, with energetic speeches and some interviews. “The president was determined, until the end, to resist criticism,” says the investigation. His family’s trust helped.
It is not clear what was the precise catalyst of the withdrawal, on July 21, 2024. Approximately one week before, Senator Chuck Schumer (Democrat for New York) met with the president at the Biden Family House in Rehoboth, Delaware. According to several reports, Schumer personally asked Biden to be put aside, transmitting the fear of many Democrats of the congress that his stay in the contest would give Trump victory. His voice was very respected in that house. However, other reports suggest that it may have been the presentation of the data of the surveys by their advisors which showed that most of the roads to the presidency had closed for Biden after the debate.
The newspaper also accounts for the times that the Democrats took to guarantee Harris as his successor, the doubts of Barack Obama to undertake his way with another candidate (perhaps his wife, Michelle?) Or the initial doubts of the party’s financiers, forced to go to one with the ex -demal for lack of time. Harris, finally, could not even convince women, of the Trumpist victory. The old number two of the government has been lost discreetly, although it maintains its battle on social networks and demonstrations against the policies of its adversary.
The Democratic Party, in these, tries to readjust and find their way. It passes through a complicated desert journey, both for ideology and for leadership, with the weight of the Biden ballast even and surpassed by the avalanche of Trump’s signatures, which is expected to slow down in the second half of its mandate. To be the new Biden or the new Harris are Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania; Gavin Newsom, governor of California; Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congressman-Promise for New York; Pete Buttigieg, former head of transport with Biden; Wes Moore, Maryland’s Democratic governor, and even the former lady Michelle Obama. No one has ruled out either that Harris herself wants to repeat.
