His back straight, his voice steady, Joe Biden stood at the US Capitol just days after a violent insurrection and declared: “Democracy has prevailed.” Fast forward three and a half years and America’s president cut a different, diminished figure. “We finally beat Medicare,” he muttered in confusion in Atlanta, Georgia.
From the soaring hopes of inauguration day to that grim debate night against Donald Trump, the very public decline of the 46th president had the makings of an American tragedy that paved the way for the return of Trump to the White House.
To his admirers, Biden will remain one of the most consequential one-term presidents in US history, having rescued the nation from a pandemic, steered major legislation through a divided Congress and created nearly 17m jobs. But he was assailed by high inflation, illegal immigration and the inexorable march of time.
