Editorial: President Biden remains in the clutches of delusion

Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jan 15, 2025

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Joe Biden leaves the Oval Office the same way he entered it: in a foggy state of delusion.

On Monday, Biden defended his foreign policy legacy during a speech at the State Department, arguing the United States is stronger on the international stage and its enemies are weaker.

“I come here to the State Department to report to the American people on the progress we’ve made in the last four years,” the outgoing president said, “in our foreign policy, in our presidency.” He added that, during his four years in office, American alliances have been strengthened and argued that the United States “once again is leading, uniting countries, setting the agenda, bringing others together behind our plans and visions.”

His address came three days after Biden held a rare press conference in the Oval Office and told reporters that, had he not dropped out of the race after a stumbling debate performance, he “would’ve beaten Trump, could’ve beaten Trump. And I think that Kamala could’ve beaten Trump, would’ve beaten Trump.”

Biden’s lack of self awareness is a stunning phenomenon. On what basis does he make such a claim about his prospects? Democrats pushed him off the ticket precisely because he trailed Donald Trump by a wide margin, and they feared a November landslide. As for Kamala Harris, did the president sleep through the 2024 election, when Trump swamped his vice president, who lost every swing state? Ms. Harris even ran as a surrogate of Biden, telling voters she would have done nothing differently.

As for his foreign policy revisionism, the president’s boasts are risible. His botched withdrawal from Afghanistan sent a message of weakness and emboldened our adversaries. Biden was impotent in the face of Putin’s Ukraine assault, and China has been flexing its muscles with minimal consequence. Meanwhile, Iran and its proxies launched an attack on Israel, leading to a full-blown crisis in the Middle East.

Only after Israel aggressively asserted itself and its right to exist — ignoring constant criticism from a Biden White House looking to appease progressives and terrorist sympathizers — was Iran exposed as a paper tiger. Hezzbollah and Hamas are now significantly diminished, it is true — for that, Biden can thank Israel for turning a blind ear to his own advice.

Biden won election in 2020 by 4 points, and Democrats had narrow edges in the House and Senate. Yet he convinced himself that he had won a massive voter mandate and could govern as the next FDR. The result was a return to Carter-era inflation, $5 a gallon gasoline, soaring interest rates, a more dangerous world and a failed re-election bid — no matter how a doddering and delusional Biden hopes to spin it otherwise.