Biden will make a case for his legacy in his White House speech — and ensure Harris continues it

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even though President Joe Biden won’t be on the ballot in November, voters will still be considering his legacy.

As Vice President Kamala Harris takes her place as the Democratic standard-bearer, Biden’s performance remains in jeopardy if Republican Donald Trump wins.

How Biden’s term as sole president and his decision to leave office are remembered will be tied to Harris’s election success in November, especially as the vice president focuses on the Biden administration’s accomplishments.

Biden will get a chance to make the case for his legacy — far-reaching domestic legislation, renewing alliances abroad, defending democracy — on Wednesday night when he speaks in the Oval Office about his decision to withdraw from the race and “what lies ahead.”

And as frustrated as Biden is at being pushed aside by his party — and he is pretty angry — the stakes are too high to simply let this election slide.

Biden endorsed Harris shortly after announcing Sunday that he would end his candidacy, giving her a leg up on potential challengers and helping to launch a candidacy largely focused on advancing his own agenda.

“If she wins, it will be a confirmation that he did the right thing to fight the threat that Trump is, and he will be seen as a legend on behalf of democracy,” said presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library in Mount Vernon. “If she loses, I think there will be questions about: Did he step down too late? Would the Democratic Party have been more effective if he had said he wasn’t going to run?”

Similar what-ifs play out at the end of every presidency. But Biden’s resistance to questions about his fitness for office and his belated submission to his party’s crisis of confidence raise the stakes.

The last vice president to run for the top job was Democrat Al Gore. He tried to distance himself from President Bill Clinton during the 2000 campaign after the president had an affair with a White House intern and was subsequently impeached.

Harris, on the other hand, has spent much of the last three years praising Biden’s actions — meaning any attempt to distance herself now would be hard to explain. And she must rely on the Biden political operation she inherited to win the election with just over 100 days to go before the polls close.

Harris told campaign officials on Monday that Biden’s legacy of accomplishments over the last three and a half years is “unparalleled in modern history.”

Trump and his allies, in turn, were eager to link Harris to Biden’s record before the president had even left the race — and not in a good way.

A campaign email to supporters read, “KAMALA HARRIS IS BIDEN 2.0 – Kamala Harris is responsible for Joe Biden’s terrible record because it is her record,” and pointed to high inflation and border policies, among other issues.

Biden this week promised his former campaign staff that he would still be “on the road” as he hands over leadership of the organization to Harris, adding: “I’m not going anywhere.”

According to his advisers, he plans to organize campaign events and fundraisers on Harris’ behalf, but at a much slower pace than if he were to remain on the ballot himself.

Harris’ advisers will ultimately have to decide how to deploy the president, whose popularity has declined as voters on both sides of the political spectrum questioned his fitness for office.

The president’s allies insist that whatever happens, Biden will keep his place in the history books intact.

Biden’s 2020 victory “was the election that protected us from a Donald Trump presidency,” said Rep. Steven Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Yes, we need to do it again this November. But if Donald Trump had been in office for four more years, the damage, the destruction, the decay of our democracy would have been even greater.”

Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way, predicted there will be a disconnect between Biden’s short-term memories and his legacy if Democrats lose in November.

“It’s true that if we lose, it will muddy things up for him in the short term,” because Democrats will have to confront Trump, Bennett said. “In the long term, when history judges Biden, they’re going to look at him on his own terms. They’re going to judge him on what he did or didn’t do as president, and they’re going to judge him very favorably.”

Biden’s decision to end his candidacy raised the spirits of congressional Democrats, who feared that the incumbent president would undermine their prospects of retaining the Senate and retaking the House. An all-Republican Washington would further damage Biden’s legacy.

Republicans in Congress have already tried to undo parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, a key Biden achievement that passed along party lines in 2022. And they could succeed next year, with President Trump waiting to sign a repeal of the law.

GOP lawmakers could also vote to roll back key federal regulations enacted later during the Biden administration.

“If Republicans get a double majority, they will take back as much as they can and undo as much as they can. That will not only be a disaster for America and the world, but it will be very bad for Biden’s legacy,” Bennett said.

Biden aides point to the seamless nature of Harris’ takeover of his political apparatus so far, as evidenced by the president’s ability to set up his vice president to operate successfully on their shared track record. But the ultimate test of that organization will come in November.

No one will cheer her more than the president.

As Biden told Harris, “I’m watching you, boy.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.