News

As Joe Biden’s presidency draws to a close, the reviews are being written — what will become the first draft of history.

And the reviews from most Americans are not good.

Surveys show they have mixed views on his four years at the pinnacle of power, the culmination of a career in public service that spans more than five decades.

Gallup found 54% of U.S. adults think Biden will be remembered as a below average or poor president; 19% say he’ll be remembered as outstanding or above average and 26% think he will be viewed as average.

Historians, though, say it will take years to fully assess Biden’s legacy and his lasting imprint on American politics. Several spoke to ABC News to offer a preliminary take on how they regard his presidency as he prepares to make his exit.

COVID recovery and legislative wins

“I think it is likely Joe Biden’s legacy will be assessed far more generously than some would have it today,” said Ellen Fitzpatrick, professor of history at the University of New Hampshire.

“His quick action upon taking office to address the COVID-19 pandemic, including expediting vaccinations and steering the American Rescue Plan to passage, contributed to a ‘first 100 days’ more robust in achievement than perhaps any president since FDR,” Fitzpatrick added.

The American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion relief bill that provided stimulus checks directly to Americans, support for state and local governments and billions of dollars in vaccine distribution, was signed just months after he took office. By mid-May 2021, his administration announced 250 million vaccines had been administered.

“That activism continued with successes in expanding federal investment in clean energy and improved infrastructure, new job creation, efforts to address climate change, curb health care costs and expand insurance coverage among many initiatives,” Fitzpatrick said.

By the end of his second year in office, he’d also signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive climate, health and tax law; the CHIPS Act, a multibillion-dollar law to boost domestic computer chip manufacturing; the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety bill in decades; and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provides funding to rebuild the country’s bridges, roads and public transportation.

But some economists question how much the big-ticket bills contributed to inflation, which reached a 40-year high during his time in office though has since cooled.

“He spent a lot of money, but didn’t really change the authorities of government and change the structure of government,” said Tevi Troy, a senior fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute. “I don’t think people are gonna look at the inflation Reduction Act, which everybody acknowledged was misnamed, the same way that we look at the Great Society legislation that Lyndon B. Johnson passed.”

Plus, Americans may not feel the full impact of Biden’s signature policies — such as infrastructure improvements or drug-pricing reforms — for years to come.

“They experienced all the disruptions without any of the payoff,” said Russell Riley, the co-chair of the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Program. “And what I think those who are supporters of Biden will count on is that in the long scope of history, once these projects stop being ongoing ventures with all the headaches associated with it and you see the good that came out of it, that his image will be rehabilitated some.”

Foreign policy footprint

“The things that I think will probably stand up as positives were a return to alliances and the importance of engaging in positive relationships with nations around the globe,” said presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky. “That was something that both our allies really want and is in America’s best interest.”

Biden made support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion a key issue, framing it as a battle for democracy against authoritarianism. He made a surprise visit to wartime Kyiv to stand alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after a year of war.

In the Middle East, Biden tried to balance unwavering support for Israel after Hamas’ terror attack in Oct. 2023 while also pushing for humanitarian assistance for Palestinians inside Gaza. He faced anger from all sides as the conflict unfolded, but managed to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas at the very end of his presidency.

Biden has also touted ending America’s longest war by removing remaining troops in Afghanistan. But the chaos that accompanied the withdrawal, including the deaths of 13 American service members, cast a pall over his presidency.

“On the flip side, the way in which the departure from Afghanistan unfolded — not so much the departure itself but the way it was conducted and that administration’s inability to take responsibility for that — I think really annoyed a lot of people and continued to color their perspective of the administration,” Chervinsky said.

His decision to run for reelection — and later drop out

Biden announced he was running for reelection in April 2023. At the time, he was 80 years old.

There was no competitive Democratic primary and he was on a glide path to become the party’s nominee until his June 2024 debate performance against Donald Trump.

The poor showing stoked concern among Democrats about Biden’s age and ability to campaign. He fought off the growing panic for weeks, but ultimately withdrew from the campaign on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place.

“He has sort of two presidencies: before the debate and then after the debate,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston and co-creator of the Presidential Greatness Project.

Riley said he believed this chapter of Biden’s presidency could overshadow his accomplishments.

“I think this is where the light of history will probably be especially harsh, particularly for those who believe that the disruptions of Trumpism are historically significant and adversely impact our constitutional system,” he added.

Biden has maintained a belief that he could have beaten Trump had he stayed in the race. He said he decided to drop out to help unify the Democratic Party.

“The tragic irony of Joe Biden is that he wanted to be president his whole life, certainly his whole Senate career, and when he finally got it, he was too old for the job,” said Troy.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer acknowledged “significant support” from President-elect Donald Trump’s team to secure the ceasefire and hostage exchange deal between Israel and Hamas in an interview Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week.”

The bulk of implementing the deal is expected after Trump takes office on Monday, which Finer said President Joe Biden’s administration was conscious of.

“They’re fully up to speed, and we have been as transparent and supportive as we can as we hand this off,” he said.

But while Finer praised the Trump team’s cooperation, he told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that it was his boss’ “persistence” that saw the deal through.

“But ultimately, at the end of the day, it was our team that was in the driver’s seat for the negotiations directed by President Biden with their support,” he said.

The interview came minutes before the first three Israeli hostages were released from captivity in Gaza, the first step in the implementation of a ceasefire deal that also involves the freeing of Palestinian prisoners.

“The attention of the world, of the press, of maybe even other governments around the world had moved on to other issues, but President Biden literally just about every day would call [national security adviser] Jake Sullivan or me or others on our team and ask for an update on the deal, what he could do to help push things forward, who he could deploy to the region, who he could call on the phone,” Finer said. “And he made, you know, dozens of calls to heads of state involved in negotiating this deal, to ultimately get it done.”

“It never escaped his attention and it really was his persistence that ultimately led to the day that we’re going to have today and the opportunity for a better future in the region that this unlocks,” Finer added.

“The Israeli government made a very difficult decision but I think had reached the same conclusion that we have reached over a long period of time, which is that ultimately, the only way to end this war, bring the hostages home, secure humanitarian relief for Gaza was some sort of exchange along the lines that was negotiated,” Finer told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Israeli-American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen — who is expected to be one of the 33 hostages released — told Karl he was “thrilled” to hear of the first three hostages being released in the first phase of the ceasefire, and expressed his hope that the remaining hostages, including his son, return home safely.

It’s been over a year since Dekel-Chen received a “positive sign of life” of his son, he said.

His son’s wife was seven months pregnant with their third child on Oct. 7, Dekel-Chen said.

“She only knows her dad as a poster on the wall, and not the man himself,” he said.

Dekel-Chen plans to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday and expressed “immense gratitude” to the president-elect for his work on the deal.

“The Biden team absolutely did extraordinary work in getting the superstructure of this deal together,” he said. “However, it took a tweet, the subsequent statements from President-elect Trump, to get this home.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

President-elect Donald Trump is marking his historic political comeback to the White House with a signature “Make America Great Again Victory Rally” in Washington on Sunday, bringing together more than 20,000 supporters to the nation’s capital ahead of Inauguration Day.

The rally is set to be held at Capital One Arena Sunday afternoon, mirroring the Madison Square Garden rally he held in New York City last October, which served as his closing remarks to American voters a week before Election Day in November.

The Sunday rally is one of numerous festivities planned to celebrate Trump’s second inauguration, along with fireworks Saturday night at his Virginia golf club and exclusive receptions and dinners.

At the same time, it’s a move to pay a special tribute to the major role big arena rallies have played in all three of Trump’s presidential bids to galvanize his supporters and to carry that campaign spirit into his second-term presidency.

The rally is also set to feature performances by several celebrities featured during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, including the disco band Village People — the ’70s group behind Trump’s beloved “Y.M.C.A.” and his rally dance — and country singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood, whose signature song “God Bless the U.S.A.” has served as Trump’s rally walkout song throughout his campaign.

Longtime Trump supporter and rock musician Kid Rock, country musician Billy Ray Cyrus and Liberty University’s Praise Choir are also set to perform at the rally.

On Monday, Trump and his supporters are expected to once again gather at Capital One Arena, which is expected to serve as an overflow venue with the inauguration festivities moved to a much smaller space inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda due to frigid weather.

Trump on his social media platform touted a “live viewing” of his inauguration at the arena on Monday, and promised to join the crowd after he is sworn in.

“Everyone will be safe, everyone will be happy, and we will, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote.

On Monday, following the swearing-in ceremony and the presidential parade, three inauguration balls – the Commander in Chief Ball, the Liberty Inaugural Ball and the Starlight Ball, all attended by Trump – are set to conclude the inaugural festivities.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Whether it is a hurricane, major tornado, wildfire or anything in between, disasters “don’t discriminate” in where they will be and whom they might affect, according to the outgoing top emergency manager.

“We know that these types of severe weather events, they don’t have borders, they don’t discriminate and we [at] FEMA … have the ability to make sure that anyone impacted doesn’t have the barriers to access our programs,” outgoing Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell told ABC News.

Criswell, a member of the Air National Guard for 21 years, has also been the top emergency manager in Aurora, Colorado, and in New York City.

“All disasters start and end at the local level, and our job as federal emergency managers is to enable their ability to be successful, and I’ve been in their role,” she said.

The outgoing administrator said she “never lost sight” of putting herself in the local emergency managers’ shoes and made policy changes based on that thinking.

Criswell noted she received criticism for putting “equity” into her strategic plan to run the agency but defended it, saying the agency needed a “mindset shift” to reach everyone who may be affected by a disaster.

“Having been a customer and understanding the barriers that people experience, whether that’s an individual or a small community, and being able to remove those barriers so everybody has the ability to get what they’re eligible for, was my focus with equity, and I know that there’s naysayers out there that want to say that equity is about picking and choosing winners and losers or however they want to phrase it, but that’s not what this was about,” she said. “This was about removing barriers, helping people through their toughest day in the way that the federal government was designed to do.”

Criswell said the agency is “nonpartisan” and that it should stay that way.

“The only way that we are going to be successful in helping communities recover, helping them rebuild in a way that makes them more resilient to future events, is by maintaining that level of nonpartisanship because if we don’t have it, then we’re going to also lose trust in the communities that we’re going in there to help,” she explained. “Without that trust, we’re not going to be able to help them with their immediate needs, and we’re not going to be not going to be able to help them with their long-term rebuilding.”

She said every disaster she responded to during her time as administrator was “different” and “unique,” including wildfires in Los Angeles, hurricane devastation in western North Carolina and crippling tornadoes in Arkansas.

“I think maybe what’s challenging is that every one I go to, it never got any easier,” she said. “It never got any easier to see people lose so much and want to be able to do whatever we could to help them on this road to recovery, knowing that we can only jump-start that process.”

During her time as administrator, she said she tried to meet people where they were and “could not make decisions about how to implement the response in the recovery from an office in Washington, D.C.”

Criswell said she got to know governors from across the country, both Republicans and Democrats, and saw the care they felt for their states during tragedies big and small.

“I reach out to every governor when something has happened, sometimes even small things that are happening,” she said. “When it comes to helping their communities, their people that have been impacted by natural disasters, I get to see the human side of every one of our state leaders, and they all care so deeply about the people that they were elected to serve.”

Part of the job as FEMA administrator is traveling to disaster zones, often with the president.

Just after Criswell was confirmed as administrator, a condominium complex in Surfside, Florida, collapsed. She and President Joe Biden visited the families who were affected. Criswell said loved ones and survivors were gathered in a room waiting to hear the status of their homes and family members when the president walked in.

“President Biden and the first lady came in, and he walked around and talked to every one of them, and what I saw that day — and then I saw every single disaster following that — was just the human side of how he approached these horrible events, and he didn’t walk around and just shake a hand and move on,” she said. “He sat and had meaningful conversations. He shared his own stories of personal tragedy.”

All told, Criswell said, he spent three hours meeting with and talking to victims.

“I have traveled with President Biden to more disasters than I ever expected to. And I told him — Mr. President, I never thought I’d have to see this much,” she said, adding that he’d always give a chuckle.

Criswell said FEMA will continue to have challenges in battling misinformation.

“We are in a new information environment, and we have to find ways to be more proactive, to build relationships with trusted leaders and communities that they can help be force multipliers [in] us getting the right message out,” she said, adding that it is something the agency has always had to deal with.

“The level … that we’re seeing divisiveness created through some of the information that’s going out there is just going to be something we have to face going forward, and we’re going to have to work on how do we get ahead of that and how do we find trusted voices in communities to help us get the real information out there,” she said.

Criswell said that in the end, it is all about helping people and getting the right information out to the right people.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — As President Joe Biden prepares to pass the baton to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday, it’s unclear if Biden will follow the tradition of leaving his successor a note in the Oval Office.

President Ronald Reagan started the ritual in 1989, according to the Washington Post, when he left a note for his former running mate, President George H.W. Bush.

He used light-hearted stationery that said, “Don’t let the turkeys get you down,” with a drawing of turkeys climbing on top of an elephant. Reagan wrote, “I treasure the memories we share and I wish you all the very best. You’ll be in my prayers. God bless you & Barbara. I’ll miss our Thursday lunches.”

Every president since has taken part in the tradition. But since Reagan’s letter to Bush, each handover has been from a Democrat to a Republican or vice versa.

Bush, who lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton, said to the nation’s new leader, “Don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course.”

“You will be our President when you read this note,” he wrote. “I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you. Good Luck.”

“I love that letter,” Clinton told ABC News in 2018. “I thought it was vintage George Bush. I thought he meant it, but I also thought he was trying to be a citizen in the highest sense of the word. It was profoundly moving to me personally.”

Clinton followed his predecessor’s tradition in 2001, when he said in a letter to President George W. Bush, “Today you embark on the greatest venture, with the greatest honor, that can come to an American citizen.”

“Like me, you are especially fortunate to lead our country in a time of profound and largely positive change, when old questions, not just about the role of government, but about the very nature of our nation, must be answered anew,” Clinton said. “You lead a proud, decent, good people. And from this day you are President of all of us. I salute you and wish you success and much happiness.”

“The burdens you now shoulder are great but often exaggerated. The sheer joy of doing what you believe is right is inexpressible,” he wrote. “My prayers are with you and your family. Godspeed.”

In 2009, George W. Bush wrote to President Barack Obama, “Congratulations on becoming our President. You have just begun a fantastic chapter in your life.”

“Very few have had the honor of knowing the responsibility you now feel. Very few know the excitement of the moment and the challenges you will face,” he said. “There will be trying moments. The critics will rage. Your ‘friends’ will disappoint you. But, you will have an Almighty God to comfort you, a family who loves you, and a country that is pulling for you, including me. No matter what comes, you will be inspired by the character and compassion of the people you now lead. God bless you.”

When Obama handed off to Trump in 2017, he wrote to his successor, “Congratulations on a remarkable run. Millions have placed their hopes in you, and all of us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure.”

“We’ve both been blessed, in different ways, with great good fortune,” Obama said, according to CNN. “Not everyone is so lucky. It’s up to us to do everything we can (to) build more ladders of success for every child and family that’s willing to work hard.”

Obama noted later in the letter, “We are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions — like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties — that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.”

He concluded by saying, “Michelle and I wish you and Melania the very best as you embark on this great adventure, and know that we stand ready to help in any ways which we can.”

Trump described Obama’s letter as “long,” “beautiful” and “so well-written, so thoughtful.”

“I called him and thanked him for the thought that was put into that letter,” Trump told ABC News “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir in 2017.

Then, in 2021, despite the contentious handover from Trump to Biden when Trump refused to admit he lost the 2020 election, Trump did follow tradition and leave Biden a note.

Biden described it as a “very generous letter,” according to Politico. The letter has never been released.

 

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.