“President Biden left his mark on the federal judiciary by installing a large number of appointees from diverse backgrounds, but he made few inroads on changing the ideological balance of courts that Donald Trump made more conservative during his first term,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Now, Trump’s return to office could ensure that the federal courts lean solidly in a conservative direction for years to come.”
“President Biden has less than a month to go until his one-term presidency ends, and he is feeling reflective,” the New York Times reports.
“He is voicing regrets about his decision not to sign his name to Covid relief checks and about his longtime reputation — once considered a virtue — of being the poorest lawmaker in Congress. And now, with a planned visit to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican next month, the president is signaling that he may have additional issues on his mind.”
New York Times: “This is the twilight of Mr. Biden’s presidency, the final days of the final chapter of an epic half-century political journey that has had more than its share of twists and turns. Time is catching up with Mr. Biden. He looks a little older and a little slower with each passing day. Aides say he remains plenty sharp in the Situation Room, calling world leaders to broker a cease-fire in Lebanon or deal with the chaos of Syria’s rebellion. But it is hard to imagine that he seriously thought he could do the world’s most stressful job for another four years.”
“That does not make it any easier as Mr. Biden heads toward the exit. Nothing that has happened since he was forced to drop out of the race in July has made that decision look wrong, yet Donald J. Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris has been interpreted as a repudiation of Mr. Biden. It stung. It still stings. But unlike Mr. Trump four years ago, this president accepts the outcome.”
Seth Masket: “I think the best lesson to draw from Biden’s presidency is a quote from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton: ‘You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story.'”
“Biden has been one of the most effective presidents of my lifetime, delivering on more party priorities and progressive goals in four short years than just about anyone thought possible. And he leaves office largely reviled, including by many he sought to help.”
Matthew Winkler: “Now that pollsters are declaring President Joe Biden a ‘failure,’ historians will reckon with too many economic signals rendering the prevailing narrative little more than media noise.”
“From the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that ushered in the longest period of unemployment below 4% since the 1960s to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 that paved the way for road and bridge building, and from the Chips and Science Act of 2022 that sparked the biggest manufacturing construction boom the country has ever seen to 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act that has led to many tens of billions of investment in new technologies that are already leading to new sources of climate-friendly energy, history will show that the 46th president laid the groundwork for US exceptionalism lasting many years, perhaps even decades, after his administration has long ended.”
“This is why the US economy is growing faster than any developed country as measured by the International Monetary Fund. It’s why America has been able to avoid a recession that so many pundits said would be inevitable by now. It’s why the US stock market is the envy of the world, soaring 58% percent under Biden’s watch, compared with just 2.5% for everyone else as measured by the MSCI indexes.”
“President Joe Biden plans to take action on land protections, clemency and artificial intelligence in the final weeks of his administration, according to a memo to allies, as he looks to codify his legacy before Donald Trump’s inauguration,” Bloomberg reports.
“The steps are the latest as Biden races to tie off key files before a transfer of power that could reverse many of them.”
Semafor: Biden’s last month to include more pardons, AI action.
James Carville called President Joe Biden the “most tragic figure in modern American politics” on his podcast, adding that Biden’s political wounds are “all so fucking self-inflicted.”
Said Carville: “I actually feel for Biden, and he knows that he fucked up. And he wasn’t crooked, he didn’t pursue bad policies, he is the most tolerant, loving, caring, non-prejudiced person you could imagine and this is what he’s faced with. It’s a fucking shame.”
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threatened that he would soon expose “stories of corruption, treason and betrayal” regarding members of Congress trading stocks.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), “who withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general on Thursday, said Friday he will not be returning to Congress next year,” CNN reports.
Said Gaetz: “I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress.”
After leading an unsuccessful effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) plans to support his reelection as speaker next year, Punchbowl News reports.
The support from Greene is just the latest sign that Johnson is likely to encounter little Republican resistance in his quest for 218 votes on the House floor on Jan. 3.
Garrett Graff: “Tragedy has always defined the public pathos of Joe Biden’s political career. And he will be a uniquely tragic figure now in American presidential history, for reasons that will be seen as entirely within his own control.”
“Biden’s presidential legacy will be defined historically by creating the circumstances that allowed Donald Trump to regain the White House, allowing a man to return to the presidency despite during his time out of office having been found liable of sexual assault, convicted of 34 felonies, and charged in three more serious state and federal criminal cases, including one that involved an attempted coup.”
“Biden’s decision to not run for re-election earlier, despite his visible public decline, will surely rank as one of the most far-reaching in American politics, a turning point that altered the path of the country, perhaps for generations.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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