COVID, CRISES AND KAMALA: INSIDE BIDEN’S TUMULTUOUS FIRST YEAR

He was voted in to bring unity and peace — then came Delta and a bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan. It has been a tumultuous 12 months in office for President Biden, says Oliver Wiseman

THE twin crises Joe Biden pledged to end were plain to see on Washington’s National Mall when he was sworn as president a year ago today. The absence of a crowd suggested a winter Covid wave killing thousands of Americans a day. A heavily militarised Washington, resembling an occupied foreign city not the capital of a democratic superpower, was an equally unmissable reminder of the attack on Congress two weeks earlier.

In his inaugural address, Biden pledged to “overcome this deadly virus” and “end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal”. Twelve months on, victory on either front has proved elusive. Biden promised unity and normality on the campaign trail. He has delivered neither in office. There are fresh problems too. His legislative agenda has run aground on the rocks of the razor-thin majorities he commands, prices are rising at the quickest rate in 40 years, and a stand off between the West and Vladimir Putin over Ukraine presents the leader of the free world with only unappetising options.

“It’s time to right the ship,” says Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh. “But you’ve got to right it fast, because otherwise it is sinking.” Sinking means heavy defeat in November’s midterm elections and the loss of control of the House of Representatives.

The clouds above the White House weren’t always so dark. His administration hit the ground running when it took office, delivering a speedy vaccine roll-out, passing a bipartisan emergency coronavirus relief package and bringing a sense of calm after the exhausting Trump years. But the summer was a turning point.

After Biden declared victory over Covid-19 on July 4, the US’s vaccination rates plateaued, the Delta wave arrived and deaths spiked. Then came Afghanistan: the botched withdrawal left a lasting impression in the minds of Americans — and the world. Biden’s core claim — indeed, his USP — of competence took a knock. The President went against advice of military advisers. It wasn’t like the Afghan government was going to collapse overnight, his team assured the country, before being humiliated by the chaos that followed. His foreign policy’s contradictions had been exposed. As Matt Bennett, a former White House adviser and the co-founder of the think tank Third Way, points out: “The Afghanistan withdrawal obviously had a very big impact on people’s attitudes towards [Biden].”

Presidents are generally awarded too much credit when things are going well and too much blame when things go badly, and Biden is no exception. He can only do so much about the global supply chain issues that have contributed to inflation and is hardly alone among world leaders in having failed to contain Delta, then Omicron. But too often the Biden White House has been slow-moving.

His version of a FDR’s New Deal was to be Build Back Better, a sweeping package of provisions offering funding for everything from renewable energy sources to universal childcare. But Biden could not get a deal on the bill that was supposed to write him into the history books. Flat-footedness hardly helps allay concerns that Biden, who will turn 80 this year, is not up to the job.

Given Biden’s age, his vice-president, Kamala Harris is subjected to greater scrutiny than previous deputies, and her lesser experience has not proved to be a reassuring presence. Her concrete achievements are hard to come by, and while Biden’s approval ratings are bad, hers are worse.

And yet, she is the heir apparent if Biden chooses not to run for a second term, which has sent some Democrats into panic mode. Others sniff an opportunity. There is even talk of Hillary Clinton mulling a comeback, although most of Washington thinks Clinton 2024 is laughable — for now. Meanwhile, Trump is licking his lips at the prospect of a rematch, even if he is coy about whether he’ll run.

Still, Biden’s trajectory is not unusual for a president. Previous occupants have experienced a confident honeymoon period before a rude reminder that they have perhaps the most difficult job in the world. Clinton is an instructive example. A fellow Democrat, he too saw a landmark piece of progressive legislation receive a thumbs down in his first year. When this leftwards route proved to be a dead end, he found success by tacking to the centre. As Bennett says, Clinton turned things around by “using his superpower... to identify with middle class aspirations. That is what... Biden is good at it too.”

But America might need convincing. In a recent interview, Harris was asked who’d be on the Democratic ticket in the 2024 election. “I’m sorry, we are thinking about today,” she replied after an awkward pause. But others are thinking about the future and right now, it doesn’t look so bright for Biden.

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Presidents are generally awarded too much blame when things go badly — and Biden is no exception