Joe Biden’s presidency has been one epic disaster after another — which is ironic considering he ran for president claiming that his years of government gave him the experience and competence necessary to lead this country.
Yet, it seems like nothing has gone right for him. He promised repeatedly he would “shut down the virus,” yet his record on COVID was worse than Trump’s — despite having three vaccines and more than a year’s worth of medical research and treatment improvements to start off with.
Biden’s presidency has been full of decisions that were intended to benefit him politically — but backfired so spectacularly.
His vaccine mandate
There was perhaps no bigger issue during the 2020 campaign, and Biden desperately wanted his legacy to be “the president who got us out of COVID.” For sure, the deck was stacked in his favor. He took office with two vaccines approved for emergency use, another soon after, and cases were trending down. He declared our “independence” from COVID on July 4, 2021 — just before COVID came roaring back. Desperate to take control of the situation as his poll numbers were declining, Biden proposed federal vaccine mandates to get COVID back under control.
The problem was that, save for his voter base, no one really liked the idea of the government telling people they had to inject something into their bodies. When large numbers of health care workers refused to get vaccinated and thus lost their jobs, Biden struggled to deal with the fallout.
His Nazi speech
Biden’s fascistic speech earlier this month hadn’t even ended, and it was obvious that the White House had made a mistake. In fact, the optics were so bad that even CNN not-so-subtly altered the tone of the blood-red backdrop in order to lessen the sinister Nazi-esque vibe. It’s hard to imagine who in the White House thought it was a good idea for Biden to accuse MAGA Republicans of being fascists and then recreate a fascist rally on primetime television. Biden himself backtracked on the content of his speech the next day, and polls showed that Americans reacted very negatively to the speech, calling it a “dangerous escalation in rhetoric.”
Student loan forgiveness
This blatant attempt at motivating young voters to go to the polls and vote Democrat in November sure seemed like a straightforward bribe, even before Biden made his final decision on the issue. He just wasn’t counting on Americans being turned off by it.
In fact, it might cost the Democrats the U.S. Senate.
According to Robert Cahaly of The Trafalgar Group, Republican gubernatorial candidates in New York and Washington state are now in surprisingly competitive races due to major backlash against incumbents; Herschel Walker has eclipsed Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia, and Dr. Mehmet Oz is now in a statistical dead heat with John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. Cahaly believes that the current Republican momentum is tied to Biden’s student loan forgiveness executive action.
“No other issue this cycle has enraged middle and working class voters more than this,” Cahaly said.
Oops.
The Trump raid
I’m sure the Biden administration thought the raid on Trump’s Florida home would make Trump look guilty and undermine a potential 2024 White House bid. But instead, it made the Biden administration look drunk with power. It backfired quickly, and the administration worked hard to distance the White House, Biden, and even Merrick Garland from the raid. Ultimately, the raid meant to end Trump’s political career proved more to be fuel for his comeback.
Related: 9/11 and Biden’s Destruction of America’s Soul
Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Perhaps no other milestone of Biden’s presidency was as consequential as his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden, hoping to get a victory photo-op on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks and make himself a hero, ignored the warnings that the Tabilan was gaining ground, and he carried out a hasty and chaotic withdrawal. Not only did the American-backed government fall and the Taliban quickly take over the country, but 13 American servicemembers lost their lives in a terror attack at Kabul airport. Publicity over the botched withdrawal sent Biden’s approval ratings underwater for the first time of his presidency — where they have remained ever since.