Outgoing US President Joe Biden spent his last day in office honoring civil rights in the state of South Carolina, which elected his opponent Donald Trump in 2020, leaving the White House after one term in which he tried to “restore the spirit of America and move on from the era of Trump” returning to power, so that his legacy would be focused on trying to reform. Internally, despite external failures, his history will preserve them.
On his last official visit, Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, spent their day in the city of Charleston in South Carolina, which suffered from slavery and racial discrimination.
Biden – the 46th President of the United States – attended a service at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church, a historic black church in North Charleston in which a massacre occurred against black churchgoers, and his visit aimed to talk about the legacy of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, whose honor is commemorated on Monday.
Biden and his wife also visited the state’s International Museum of African Americans, which was built on a site overlooking the coast where tens of thousands of Africans were brought to the United States from the late 1760s until 1808.
Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn from South Carolina considered Biden’s visit on his last day in power a “message of thanks to the state” that helped him win the Democratic Party primaries in 2020, despite his loss in the presidential elections.
Talk about power
In the church, Biden addressed the worshipers, saying, “My father used to say that the greatest sin is the abuse of power,” without mentioning the name of Trump, against whom this accusation had previously been made, especially in his political speech during his presidential campaign, considering that “Trump puts his personal interests ahead of him.” Above the country’s interests.
During the speech, Biden urged Americans to “maintain faith in better days ahead,” adding that “faith teaches us that the America we dream of is always closer than we think,” in light of his indication on previous occasions that Trump “destroyed the spirit of America that Americans dream of.” With his policies that undermine democracy, especially after the storming of the Capitol building by his supporters in 2021.
“Contribute to bring it back”
Although Biden’s domestic policies over the past four years attempted to amend Trump’s policies on issues of health, education, and social justice, the Democratic Party accused him of contributing to Trump’s return to the White House, and they considered that this would remain his legacy.
One of the most prominent scenes in Biden’s presidency is the debate that was described as “bad” with Trump last June 27, during which his physical and mental abilities appeared to be declining, which raised the Democratic Party’s concerns about his abilities, but he insisted on running again, only to withdraw late. From the presidential race.
As a result, the Democrats considered that Biden did not leave an opportunity for his deputy Kamala Harris, who ran for the presidency, which ultimately led to her loss to Trump despite the large donations she received.
Analysts also believe that Biden’s failure in some economic aspects, which led to rising inflation levels in 2021 and 2022 until it reached its peak at 9%, contributed to the return of Trump, who realized the importance of the economy to Americans.
External failures
While Trump celebrated his inauguration in Washington last night with some of the stormers of the Capitol building, ready to implement his pledge to sign 100 executive orders on his first day in the White House and cancel some of his predecessor’s decisions to draw up a new American policy, proud of his completion of the Gaza Strip deal, Biden leaves with external failures that his legacy will preserve.
Analysts believe that Biden’s foreign policy contributed to the continuation of the Gaza Strip war for 15 months, by continuing his support for Israel without exerting sufficient pressure, until a deal was reached last week in Doha after Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff participated in the discussions.
Biden also leaves the presidency without paving the way for ending the ongoing war in Ukraine. In this war, his administration also provided nothing but military support to Kiev, and was unable to prevent the outbreak of war despite its intelligence knowledge of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intention to launch it.
His first decisions, which are considered a failure in Biden’s foreign policy, were the American withdrawal, which was described as chaotic, from Afghanistan in August 2021, and the return of the Taliban to power.
Although Biden said in 2016 that he “would be the best president of the United States” with his decades of political experience, his legacy reflects failures that Democrats considered to have led Trump to the presidency again.