triumphs, heartbreak and a turbulent finale
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A look back at Joe Biden’s career
Joe Biden started his political career in 1970, first as a Republican. He became a lifelong Democrat when he won his Senate seat two years later.
For Joe Biden, it has been a long road from Scranton.
Biden’s reluctant announcement Sunday that he won’t seek a second term in the White House − a decision that throws the Democratic presidential race into uncharted waters − signals the end of one of the longest political careers in American history, one laced with historic achievements and dramatic reversals, heartbreak and drama.
His tenure as the nation’s 46th president, the fulfillment of a lifetime aspiration, is likely to rank as one of the most consequential in modern times. He helped navigate a course from the worst pandemic in a century, presided over an against-the-odds economic recovery, united much of the world against Russian expansionism, and made the biggest investment in climate change in history.
But there was a challenge he couldn’t conquer: age.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote in a letter posted on social media. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
More: Joe Biden drops out of 2024 race, endorses Vice President Kamala Harris
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Just 10 days ago, in the wake of a disastrous debate against Donald Trump in which he appeared to lose his train of thought, Biden insisted he wasn’t staying in the race “for my legacy,” but “to complete the job that I started.”
But in the end, voices that he couldn’t ignore, among them his old ally Nancy Pelosi, focused on protecting his legacy. They argued that continuing the campaign risked making his last chapter in politics leading the Democrats into disaster in November.
With questions about his mental acuity persisting, he could cost Democrats not only the White House but also control of the Senate and its hopes of regaining the House.
That catastrophic coda not only could overshadow his achievements − on creating jobs and spurring growth, on strengthening alliances and investing in infrastructure. It would also make it possible for a reelected Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress to dismantle many of them.
More: As President Joe Biden steps aside, would America be ready for President Kamala Harris?
From young senator to aging president
When Joseph Robinette Biden was first elected to the Senate at age 30 and skeptics asked about his age, he had a standard response. “Watch me,” he would say.
That was the same rejoinder he would use a half-century later, when skeptics asked about his age in an entirely different context.
Few figures in American history have filled as many political roles as he has, from one of the youngest senators ever when he was elected in 1972 to the nation’s oldest president at 81. Early on, he was a Democratic centrist on abortion, civil rights and crime. Later, as president, he would enact the most far-reaching…
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