() President Joe Biden released a farewell letter to the nation Wednesday as he finishes the final days of his presidency.
Biden was expected to address the nation in a farewell speech Wednesday evening.
The letter was a last-gasp effort to cast a positive spin on his legacy, even as multiple polls show that Americans already view him less favorably than the man who both preceded and will succeed him, President-elect Donald Trump. More than half of Americans have a negative view of the current president.
In the letter, Biden attempted to frame his presidency a stabilizing force in time of multiple national crises. He claimed to have stepped into a nation in chaos during the “winter of peril,” pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic difficulties (which began after Biden took office), and the Jan. 6 uprising at the Capitol in protest of the highly dubious 2020 election outcome.
“Jan. 6 [was] the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,” Biden claimed, amplifying familiar rhetoric that has belied his campaign promise to unite and heal partisan divides.
“But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it,” he continued. “We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.”
Biden touted a string of accomplishments, from helping veterans who were exposed to toxic materials to lowering violent crime—a false claim that the FBI has acknowledged is based on changes in the way crime statistics were collected and recorded.
“The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years,” Biden said, potentially alluding to the fact that more white Americans have been driven below the poverty line due to his inflationary policies.
“We’re rebuilding our entire nation—urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities,” Biden continued. “Manufacturing is coming back to America. We’re leading the world again in science and innovation, including the semiconductor industry. And we finally beat Big Pharma to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.”
The outgoing president touted other policy wins and avoided his failures, like the chaotic and deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan or the illegal immigration crisis.
Along with the letter, the White House included a lengthy list of accomplishments. On inflation, another defining problem of his tenure, Biden’s staff took credit for helping lower prices—sidestepping the fact that they went up on his watch and remain higher than when he took office.
Biden referred to a common motif in his speeches in recent years: the soul of America. He referred to America’s “soul” three times in the letter.
“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case,” Biden said.
“America is an idea stronger than any army and larger than any ocean. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world,” he continued. “That idea is that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.”
Biden has been harshly criticized for having promoted a two-tiered system of justice that targeted his political enemies while favoring his friends, family and business partners. He notoriously pardoned his son Hunter last month for any crimes spanning back the past 14 years, including tax-evasion and gun crimes for which Hunter had been found guilty in the court of law.
Biden ended the letter by emphasizing the power of the American people.
“History is in your hands,” Biden said. “The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. We just have to keep the faith and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there is simply nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
