America’s greatest presidents were sometimes treated like punching bags in office — insulted and vilified by opponents. President Biden has endured the same undeserved treatment. But I expect that, like other great presidents, history will judge him more accurately.
Biden has been a historically transformative president. His landmark domestic accomplishments are comparable to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.
A 2023 survey of 154 political scientists and other presidential experts ranked Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and George Washington as America’s three greatest presidents, in that order. Biden ranked No. 14. Donald Trump, who will become president again on Jan. 20, ranked No. 45 — last on the list. I’m confident Biden’s ranking will rise in the years ahead.
Biden’s accomplishments include:
- Winning congressional approval for $4.6 trillion in investments to end the coronavirus pandemic with free vaccinations and treatments;
- Stimulus checks of up to $1,400 for individuals, and other programs;
- Creating more than 16 million jobs and cutting the unemployment rate from 6.3 percent when he took office to 4.2 percent in November;
- Reducing health insurance and prescription drug costs for millions of Americans;
- Combatting dangerous climate change while creating clean-energy jobs and manufacturing jobs; and
- Cutting taxes for middle-class and working-class families and some businesses, while imposing a minimum tax on multibillion-dollar corporations and cracking down on wealthy tax cheats.
Biden also signed a bill into law approving $1.2 trillion in investments to improve America’s roads, bridges, mass transit, rail, airports, ports, waterways and energy systems, and create good jobs.
Biden administration policies have reduced illegal crossings on our southern border below the level that prevailed when Trump left office, with apprehensions of unauthorized migrants on the border falling by about 75 percent in the last 12 months.
In addition, Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law to invest $53 billion to create semiconductor manufacturing jobs in the U.S., dramatically increased health care benefits for veterans, issued an executive order to protect access to reproductive health care and appointed 233 federal judges confirmed by the Senate, including Kentanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
Biden also enacted the most significant gun safety reforms in 30 years and improved the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and other health programs.
On criminal justice, he issued an executive order mandating reforms to improve police accountability and reduce police use of excessive force.
He was praised by unions as the most pro-union president in U.S. history.
He sought to cancel college student loan debt for millions of people, although some of his efforts were blocked by the courts.
Internationally, Biden has repaired relations with allies damaged by Trump, strengthened and expanded NATO with the addition of Finland and Sweden as members and mobilized the alliance to enable Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked invasion.
Biden has helped Israel defend itself after Hamas terrorists invaded the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023, boosted aid to help innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip and helped bring about a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
In his final weeks in office, he continues efforts to get a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and free about 100 Israeli, American and other hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza.
In addition, Biden and his administration successfully negotiated the release of more than 70 Americans held hostage by foreign governments, including basketball player Brittney Griner and journalist Evan Gershkovich, who were both held by Russia.
Biden ended America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan — the longest in our history — under an agreement negotiated by the Trump administration. Unfortunately, the speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops required under the Trump agreement enabled the Taliban to seize power.
By any measure, Biden’s achievements dwarfed Trump’s accomplishments during his chaotic term. And yet, in 2020 and 2024 — before Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him — Trump falsely portrayed Biden as a doddering old man incapable of leading our nation.
Trump said Biden “can’t string two sentences together,” accused Biden of “incompetence and stupidity” and said on social media that Biden has the “mind, ideas and I.Q. of a First Grader.”
The attacks on Biden were reminiscent of the worst attacks on our greatest presidents.
Some of Washington’s critics called for his impeachment, said his administration brought about “deep and incurable public evils” and asked whether he was “the tyrant instead of the savior of his country.” Benjamin Franklin’s grandson said Washington was “certainly not a great man.”
The New York World republished an editorial from another newspaper calling Lincoln the “obscene ape of Illinois.” An Illinois newspaper said Lincoln “is no more capable of becoming a statesman, nay even a moderate one, than the braying ass can become a noble lion.”
Franklin Roosevelt was frequently called a socialist, a communist, a fascist and a would-be dictator by his critics. Publisher William Randolph Hearst’s 28 big-city newspapers labeled the New Deal “the Raw Deal,” and Hearst signed a front-page editorial claiming that Roosevelt “received the support of the Karl Marx Socialists … communists and anarchists … and … has done his best to deserve the support of all such disturbing and destructive elements.”
The attacks leveled against Biden by Trump and some of his supporters are equally hyperbolic.
Joe Biden has been an outstanding senator, vice president and president, devoting 50 years of his life to public service in elected office. Now 82, he was unable to turn back the clock and make himself younger, resulting in his abandoning his reelection campaign after concerns were raised about his ability to serve four more years.
As Biden prepares to leave the White House, the American people owe him our thanks and gratitude for all he has achieved for us and for our country.
Donna Brazile is a political strategist, a contributor to ABC News and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. She is the author of “Hacks: Inside the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House.”
