Inside the successes missteps and failures of Biden s early presidency HEAD TOPICS
Inside the successes missteps and failures of Biden s early presidency
10/22/2022 10:06:00 PM The story of Biden s first term so far is a roller coaster — complicated and contradictory with remarkable achievements and enormous disappointment
Source The Washington Post
The story of Biden s first term so far is a roller coaster — complicated and contradictory with remarkable achievements and enormous disappointment The story of Biden s first term so far is a roller coaster — complicated and contradictory with remarkable achievements and enormous disappointment The Collapse, where desperate South Vietnamese refugees had tried to cling to helicopters departing Saigon in 1975.rushing Kabul International Airport, clinging to the wings of departing planes. Human remains recovered in the wheel well of a U.S. military C-17 after it landed at a Qatari air base. And several other Afghans — including a teenage soccer player — plummeting to their death as the planes lifted into the sky. The initial reports of the Aug. 26Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who oversaw the American departure as the head of the U.S. Central Command, broke in every few minutes as he got more news. About 30 minutes into the meeting, McKenzie told the president, “We have KIA,” referring to members of the military killed in action. Read more:
The Washington Post » Biden returns to Pittsburgh to see new construction on bridge that collapsed earlier this year Biden says he intends to run again in 2024, and has the first lady’s support Biden’s approval rating: Numbers remain low, new poll shows SEAN HANNITY: Are you better off today than when before Joe Biden became president? Snap sets off alarm bells in ad-reliant social media sector
Snap Inc shares sank more than 30% on Friday and hit their lowest since the pandemic, after the company's forecast of zero revenue growth pointed to more pain ahead for a social media sector heavily dependant on digital advertising. Read more >> His remarkable achievements ARE the enormous disappointments... He is a walking disappointment! As is the Washington Post... Except for you guys have NO achievememts except for genuine fakeness Okay WHERE ARE THE ACHIEVEMENTS The leftist sock puppet media finally gets one right! 🙄 Not one success It’s been one long non-stop failure. Principal achievement: keeping his dementia diagnosis under wraps. With all the B S that is created by Trump and his goons I would say he has done a terrific job. Imagine if there were Republicans that cared about the Country and its people, what all could of gotten done with so much less grief. It's been a very hard term fíe Biden, same happened with Obama. What successes ? Who in the hell is going to read this bloated “think piece”? I quit reading and scrolled to the bottom and was like the king in Amadeus: “tooo many words” or notes or whatever Biden returns to Pittsburgh to see new construction on bridge that collapsed earlier this yearPresident Biden has become a frequent visitor to Pennsylvania, leading up to the midterms less than three weeks away. John Fetterman, the Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, was on hand for the president's visit. Where do we sign up for those 20 million dollar heated sidewalks? I’m tired of plowing my driveway during the winter. Nope. Remarkable achievements. This is click bait. Knock it off. Lots of wins for voters from a party that doesn’t hate them or look down on them or drag rape victims into the spotlight to be judged. Biden says he intends to run again in 2024, and has the first lady’s supportIn an MSNBC interview, Biden repeated his intention to run — citing the backing of Jill Biden and recalling early words of encouragement from his late son, Beau. Our strategic oil reserve will be at 0 by then. Lol Eat that, Republicans!🖕🖕🖕🖕 Right Biden’s approval rating: Numbers remain low, new poll showsLess than a month before U.S. midterm elections, President Joe Biden’s approval rating remains stuck near the lowest numbers of his presidency, according to a new poll. Depends on the poll. I saw one today that says the opposite of this. The man has been a disaster for the country and its people. “Lowest numbers of his presidency” is a generous way of saying, “lowest numbers of any presidency” SEAN HANNITY: Are you better off today than when before Joe Biden became president?'NOT JUST JOE': seanhannity tears into the 'Democratic Radical Socialist Party' for their mounting failures: 'No wonder Republicans are surging in the polls.' seanhannity seanhannity seanhannity They aren’t Biden touts Pittsburgh bridge as infrastructure winThe bipartisan infrastructure legislation is one of Biden’s most notable successes from the first two years of his term, and he repeatedly emphasizes its impact. Former Santa Rosa senior center destroyed by 2-alarm fireA 2-alam fire erupted inside the building that once housed the Bennett Valley Senior Center early Thursday, gutting the structure before the flames were extinguished. November , dragging down his overall rating, according to Washington Post-ABC News polling.02:32 The Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh became a symbol of the country's troubled infrastructure, collapsing into a ravine earlier this year, hours before President Biden visited the city.died of brain cancer in 2015 — would have for those who say Biden should not run again because of his age.Dump Biden in 2024, most Democrats say: Trump is top Republican pick, poll shows Biden is upside down in disapproval ratings among both men and women, the poll shows. “We go with what we know at the time, with the best possible information, with what the experts are telling us, and do our best,” said Mike Donilon, a senior Biden adviser. Advertisement The Collapse Heading into August, Biden advisers were exhausted but optimistic, eager to take a week of summer vacation. Biden detoured to survey the scene, where vehicles were stranded on shards of roadway and several people were injured, and pledged that help was on the way. “No one,” said one former White House aide, “expected Afghanistan would become a huge political nightmare.’ ” Advertisement When asked if the first lady supports a 2024 run, Biden nodded and paused before providing a full answer.” But that’s exactly what happened. US President Joe Biden speaks about the rebuilding the nation's infrastructure at the Fern Hallow Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 2022. In a meeting immediately before Biden’s July announcement of an August deadline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, one of the president’s senior military advisers had assured him that , where desperate South Vietnamese refugees had tried to cling to helicopters departing Saigon in 1975. It has a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. Just moments later, unplanned and unscripted, Biden repeated that phrase in an exchange with reporters, much to the chagrin of his advisers. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images Mr. “I have not made that formal decision, but it’s my intention. “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the — of the United States, from Afghanistan,” he said. Kabul would fall just over five weeks later, forcing a helicopter airlift to the nearby airport and resulting in a cascade of devastating images and news bulletins: Desperate Afghans rushing Kabul International Airport, clinging to the wings of departing planes. John Fetterman , the Democrat running for the U. Human remains recovered in the wheel well of a U. The 79-year-old — who was the oldest person to be sworn into office — has faced questions from his own party about whether he should seek reelection, due to his age and low approval ratings.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, was on hand for the president's visit. military C-17 after it landed at a Qatari air base. And several other Afghans — including a teenage soccer player — plummeting to their death as the planes lifted into the sky. President Joe Biden speaks with greeters, including US Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania Bob Casey (R), Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (2nd R) and Pennsylvania Lt. One former senior administration official said that inside the White House there was an immediate realization that the images looked “very bad,” and aides began privately likening the situation to Saigon. Another person familiar with the dynamic recalled a senior official laying out newspaper front pages from the day — which all featured nearly identical photos from Kabul — as aides were stunned into silence, horrified by the loss of life. and Democratic senatorial candidate John Fetterman (3rd R), upon arrival at Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 2022 . And it would only get worse. The initial reports of the Aug. "I'm coming back to walk over this sucker," Mr. 26 bombing outside Kabul airport’s gates came around 9 a.m."Although my staff said to me, 'You realize how many times you've been to Pittsburgh?' I said no., when Biden was already headed to the Situation Room for a daily meeting on Afghanistan. Advertisement Gen.'" The White House is crediting the bipartisan infrastructure law championed by Mr. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who oversaw the American departure as the head of the U.S. "It's being done in record time. Central Command, broke in every few minutes as he got more news. About 30 minutes into the meeting, McKenzie told the president, “We have KIA,” referring to members of the military killed in action. Biden said, adding the cost is $25 million and"fully paid for" by the federal government. The number of U. S. Out of roughly $1 trillion in spending, about $40 billion is dedicated to bridges. service members who had been killed ticked up throughout the meeting — with McKenzie providing updates every few minutes. Biden told McKenzie and others still in Kabul to let him know what they needed, and he’d get it to them. The push to speed up the permitting, design and construction process has come as high inflation has been pushing up costs and causing delays. He also told them to make whatever decisions they needed to keep their troops safe. In the end, the bombing killed more than 170 people, including 13 U. And the Transportation Department launched an internal center to advise on best practices for construction. S. service members. "That's not true," Biden responded. To the rest of his staff, Biden offered an acknowledgment of the tragedy and an admonition to stay the course: The worst thing that can happen has happened, the president said, and now we move forward. Although Biden never wavered in his decision to bring U. Count, kid, count.S. troops home, he was livid, advisers said, with the intelligence community for having underestimated how quickly Kabul would fall. Biden plans to stop in Philadelphia for a fundraiser with Fetterman, trying to replenish coffers that have been drained in one of the year's most expensive races. A spokesperson for the intelligence community declined to comment. Several officials recalled much of the White House grinding to a halt as — for the first time since taking office — even Democrats seemed to abandon the administration. Mehmet Oz, a Republican, for an open seat being vacated by Sen. Two chiefs of staff at key agencies, both political appointees, independently fretted that they were witnessing the beginning of the end of Biden’s presidency. Ultimately, the administration took credit for airlifting more than 120,000 people out of Kabul, successfully resettling roughly 80,000 Afghans in the United States. If Fetterman wins, Democrats will have a much better shot at maintaining control of the Senate. White House officials argue that the withdrawal also likely saved American lives. But the fear in Biden’s ranks was that the damage had been done. Biden was born in Pennsylvania, and the state remains central to his political identity. “ ‘Forget about the midterms,’ ” a Cabinet secretary’s chief of staff said, according to an administration official. “ ‘This is it. A 15th trip has already been scheduled for next week, when he's expected to return to Philadelphia for another political event.’ ” The Bottom Although the Afghanistan debacle would soon fade from headlines, the withdrawal undermined Biden’s image as calm and competent — an anti-Trump — and its shock waves lingered. Meanwhile, a new political danger was emerging, one that had been magnified as the delta surge began to disrupt the global manufacturing supply chain. It ain't over until it's over. The prices of necessities such as apartment rents, milk jugs and cartons of eggs began to creep up, while computer-chip shortages sent automobile prices rocketing. Biden had come to office with a green light from many of the nation’s top economists to spend heavily. During his campaign, both of the former chairs of the Federal Reserve — Ben Bernanke and Janet L. Yellen, his future treasury secretary — had advised him that when it came to pandemic response, there was greater risk in going small than going big. Economists at Wall Street banks were also on board. As late as March 2021, Federal Reserve governors were so confident that they predicted no interest rate increases until 2024 — a date, it would soon turn out, that was off by 21 months. Advertisement In retrospect, the risks to kicking off an inflationary spiral were evident all along. Biden’s first legislative success, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, amounted to an injection of money equal to about 9 percent of the U. S. economy, following two previous injections in 2020 worth 15 percent combined, according to the International Monetary Fund . American bank accounts grew, leading to historic drops in child poverty, a rebound in the labor market, and a drop in evictions. But when coronavirus variants spiked later in the year, the extra cash ran headlong into new supply chain disruptions — problems that were only exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that winter. Just how much Biden’s legislation contributed to the higher prices remains a debate, with administration officials arguing that inflation is a global phenomenon and a smaller covid relief package would not have fundamentally limited domestic inflation. Still, there is broad agreement it added some fuel to the fire. Inside the White House, even Jared Bernstein, a longtime Biden economic adviser known for his left-leaning views, had concerns over the summer about what impact the massive infusions of printed money — about $500 billion in 2021 alone — would have on inflation. “It’s getting pretty hot in the kitchen,” he warned one colleague, according to a person familiar with the statement. (Bernstein said he does not remember making the comment.) As the inflation rate continued to tick up into the fall, Biden’s frustration mounted. He repeatedly asked aides why no one was out on television defending him and his administration against Republican attacks on the issue. Advertisement A debate formed inside his inner circle about how they spoke of inflation. Though many economic experts had initially believed inflation would prove “transitory,” it was an easily mocked phrase. Biden allies both inside and outside the White House had begun pushing for Biden to give a speech addressing head-on the new reality of rising prices. But officials said White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain resisted, preferring to focus on the good economic indicators like the strong jobs numbers. If the White House didn’t tell its own positive story, he argued in meetings, no one else would. Several senior administration officials — including Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council — said no one, including Klain, ever urged Biden not to directly address inflation. Later, Biden himself would also come to believe that he personally needed to address inflation more directly. He fixated on a virtual speech that Yellen had delivered to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, regularly reading large chunks of the speech aloud to aides and arguing that he needed to deliver something similar. His aides eventually convinced him that Yellen’s speech — which contrasted what she termed the administration’s “modern supply-side economics” with Keynesian and traditional supply-side approaches — was good for a global economic conference but not for American voters. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recalled watching as Biden worked to mitigate supply chain disruptions. The president, Buttigieg said, simultaneously requested highly detailed and tactical updates about ports and private delivery companies, while also repeatedly asking about the impact on Americans. Now, some of that work was finally coming to fruition. “It was challenging because this was before we could ensure it was going to be a smooth Christmas shopping season,” Buttigieg said. “But he wanted to know what the likelihood of success was, and if I’m ordering a bike for my kid, what’s going to happen. ” The White House shifted into crisis mode, seeking ways to unstick global commerce, as the administration waited for the Federal Reserve to tackle the problem of too much demand with rising interest rates. By the end of his first year in office, inflation was widely seen inside the White House and among Democratic operatives as the biggest political problem facing the party and the administration as they headed into the 2022 midterm elections. Advertisement “If you talk to voters, what they saw was a president who seemed very focused on his own agenda and not things that were affecting them — like inflation, like ‘I’m feeling nervous about the economy,’ ” Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter said. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.), the linchpin of Biden’s legislative agenda, was even more stark in November: “DC can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day,” he tweeted in response to the rising inflation numbers. Days later, he pulled his support from the next big piece of Biden’s legislative agenda. The White House reacted with fury. In a sharply worded, 10-paragraph statement put out under then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s name but partially drafted by Klain, the White House excoriated Manchin, describing his turnabout as a “sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate. ” The statement infuriated Manchin, and White House advisers later admitted that the blistering attack on a Democrat whose vote was critical was an unforced error. Meanwhile, more challenges emerged as the delta surge gave way to a new variant: omicron. The new variant was even more contagious, spreading rapidly among the vaccinated, who continued to enjoy protection against hospitalization and death. The White House raced to respond, enacting travel restrictions over Thanksgiving weekend when most of the world had not even heard of the latest mutation. Yet another problem emerged: As people struggled to protect their families before the holidays, they found store shelves barren of tests. The White House, as one senior administration official put it, had been “caught flat-footed.” Biden was furious. In meetings in the Oval Office, an exasperated Biden repeatedly asked, “Why didn’t we order enough tests? Why didn’t we order enough of what we needed?” Advertisement That summer, as covid had seemed to recede, testing manufacturers had slowed their production of at-home tests. Covid modeling at the time had anticipated that vaccines would lower the rate of new infections, and Abbott Laboratories had even destroyed millions of rapid tests and laid off employees during that stretch. One former administration official involved in the process, however, said the problem was not one of a failure to plan, but one of capacity: There weren’t enough at-home tests available to order for the winter months ahead, even had the administration wanted to. A second administration official added that there were no at-home tests available to consumers on the market when Biden took office, so the administration was forced to play catch-up — yet still managed to go from zero to at least a dozen brands in his first year, with 19 currently on the market. Either way, the mistake proved costly. “Coming in after Trump, regarding covid, we knew we had to lead with competence, and the testing debacle undermined that competence,” said someone involved in the response. Other unexpected challenges were also bedeviling the administration, including a nationwide shortage of baby formula, which became a full-blown political crisis for Biden by May. Although industry leaders knew of a coming shortage as early as February, there was a breakdown in communication between the Food and Drug Administration and the White House about the issue. Biden did not learn of the crisis until April. Advertisement As questions about the baby formula shortage dominated the daily White House news briefing, Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to help ramp up formula production at home and also authorized the airlifting of formula from foreign countries. White House aides asked Vice President Harris to meet the first shipment of formula from abroad — a symbolic photo opportunity, but one that would inadvertently link her to yet another administration crisis. The request illustrated the ongoing tension between the West Wing and the vice president’s office, stemming from the inherently ill-defined role of a president’s No. 2. Biden’s selection of Harris made history, elevating the first Black and Indian American woman to the role of vice president. But her tenure has been marked by concerns about her management style — fueled by an almost complete turnover of her senior staff — a nebulous portfolio leaving her without signature policy accomplishments, and persistent doubts about her ability to lead the Democratic Party into the future. Ultimately, Harris refused to meet the baby formula shipment, so Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack went instead. A Harris aide said she greeted a later shipment of baby formula. The vice president’s office disputed the characterization of Harris’s contributions, touting her work in Central America to coordinate the response to a surge in migration, how she shaped an infrastructure law to expand broadband access, and her leadership role on reproductive rights and expanding access to abortion . In a statement, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said, “The Vice President has been core to our historic successes and the President is grateful for her leadership and full partnership every day.” The Bounce Back By March, the administration began to take steps to regain its legislative footing. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo held a private dinner that month at her Georgetown home, personally preparing a pork roast for Manchin and Klain. At the meal, Klain apologized to Manchin for how the White House had handled the breakdown of legislative negotiations, which included the blistering statement. “I’m sorry if those statements offended you, or made you feel like we were coming after you,” Klain told Manchin, according to one person familiar with the comments. “We didn’t mean any offense.” Advertisement The detente repaired the fractured relationship. And, more important, it laid the groundwork for an eventual 11th hour deal that capped an eight - week stretch of propulsive legislative successes for the administration: The first federal gun safety bill in 28 years. Billions of dollars to spur the development of a domestic semiconductor industry. A significant expansion of health care for veterans. And a sweeping bill that invests billions of dollars to combat climate change and aims to reduce the costs of prescription drugs. White House aides argue the fixation on Democratic infighting early in Biden’s tenure obscured the delicate political work they were engaged in behind the scenes, managing the sometimes-competing interests of the liberal and moderate wings of the party, with little room for defections. Biden himself, for instance, spent time whipping votes, calling a list of reluctant liberal House lawmakers and highlighting the projects that would benefit their states and districts ahead of the passage of the infrastructure law, one senior adviser said. Ultimately, White House advisers argue their success in getting nearly every Democrat to vote for the president’s legislative agenda should be celebrated. “What I see was a strategy we ran that succeeded in us getting more legislation passed in two years than any administration in modern times, with the narrowest majority in the history in both the House and the Senate,” a senior White House adviser said. Millions of veterans who were exposed to burn pits are now eligible for expanded health care. Starting next year, senior citizens on Medicare will not have to pay more than $35 a month for insulin. Americans can now purchase hearing aids over the counter at pharmacies. The infrastructure law will spur repairs of 65,000 miles of roads and 1,500 bridges this year and, over time, expand broadband access across the country. The new climate law could save Americans thousands of dollars through rebates and tax credits for using renewable energy, electric vehicles and making other climate-friendly improvements to their homes. As Biden kept racking up wins, the president’s mood lifted — and White House aides felt the darkness that had clouded much of their first year dissipate. Inside the West Wing, aides obsessively followed the FiveThirtyEight average of national polls, their moods rising with the tiniest shifts upward. Gone were the headlines of Democratic infighting. Now, Biden touted campaign promises fulfilled. Even casualties of that first year, like former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who last fall lost his bid to reclaim his office in a state Biden had won by 10 percentage points, began to see the shift. “Going through the fall, the Democrats looked like they were just constantly fighting one another, and they couldn’t get bills passed,” McAuliffe said. “And I think the American public looked at — these guys got control of the House, Senate, White House. If they can’t get anything done, why should they have any power?” In early spring, Biden sat in his private dining room with senior advisers and eviscerated the Republican Party. He expressed his concerns about the party’s continued embrace of election conspiracy theories, and lamented how the extremist and far-right factions had overtaken their party to drown out more-moderate Republicans. Biden made clear he wanted to distinguish more sharply the different factions of the Republican Party and build on an argument he had been making for years: “This is not your father’s Republican Party.” Biden and his aides eventually settled on describing the Republicans as pushing an “ultra-MAGA” agenda, a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. The ultra-MAGA phrase was the result of a six-month research project led by Anita Dunn, who rejoined the White House as a senior adviser in the spring, and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal group. But the most seismic shift for Biden and the Democrats — and arguably the country — came from the third branch of government: the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade At first, Biden and his top aides were slow to act. Advertisement White House officials had a two-month head start to plan for the post- Roe landscape, after a draft opinion of the decision was leaked. But as senior aides sat in the president’s office on June 23, two White House officials said they believed they had an extra week to put into action the plan they were hoping to finalize, wrongly believing the court would wait until the end of its session to rule. Instead, the court ruled the next day, setting off a scramble inside the West Wing. Biden had already approved his remarks for the decision, but all of the executive actions were not ready. Jen Klein, director of the Gender Policy Council, denies that the White House was caught off guard, saying in a statement, “We were absolutely prepared. ” In an interview, she said advisers were unsure whether the draft opinion would be identical to the final ruling, and needed time make sure any executive actions could withstand legal challenges. “We were just trying to do all of the work we could do to be ready, while holding and waiting for the opportunity to actually read the decision and respond to it adequately,” she said. Many Democrats were disappointed by Biden’s initial response. And even inside the White House, staffers — including some of the president’s top advisers — thought the speech lacked the forcefulness needed at that moment. Biden, a devout Catholic, has long been out of step with his party on abortion and has often struggled to lead on the issue. But Donilon, Biden’s longtime adviser — who is also Catholic and who Biden trusts deeply — urged the president to take a more forceful stance. Donilon also counseled aides not to worry about Biden’s initially lackluster response, arguing that the overturning of Roe was a tectonic event, fundamentally altering the political landscape and mobilizing Democrats. Advertisement Donilon’s insight proved to be prescient. In August, voters in Kansas, a reliably conservative state, turned out in droves to reject an amendment that would have stripped away the state’s abortion As the election was getting closer, Biden’s standing continued to slowly rise. Inflation and covid were still present, but fading, and the president found himself again with a clear direction and message. “Across every measure of how you respond to a pandemic, we’ve seen dramatic improvements to get the virus under control,” said Ashish Jha, the White House covid coordinator, noting that deaths from the virus are down 90 percent and the economy and schools are fully reopened. White House officials also argue that their success on fighting the pandemic came despite stiff opposition from leading Republicans, who undermined confidence in vaccines and blocked funding for the response. During the 2020 campaign, Biden would brim with confidence, telling advisers there were only three ways he would lose to Trump: “I screw up, he steals the election, or I get covid.” Advertisement By early last month, aides again believed the national environment was tacking back in their direction: The decision to overturn Roe Jan. 6 hearings. The FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and the discovery that the former president took more than 700 pages of classified documents from the White House. Biden’s vow to restore American leadership on the world stage also came to fruition in the months following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February, in what aides attribute to steps that had been taken before the war began. Advertisement In the run-up to the invasion, the White House debuted creative intelligence-sharing strategies, unified European allies against Russia, readied military and financial aid for Ukraine, and prepared some of the harshest and most severe sanctions ever levied against Russia. A pivotal moment came at the end of last October, during a meeting Biden requested with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany during the Group of 20 summit in Rome. In a private room, Biden walked the leaders through new U. S. intelligence, explaining in granular detail what the Russians were planning and contemplating. “It was eye-opening for his counterparts, and it was really at that meeting that there was agreement to start work immediately to do two things — one was to try to prevent Russia from going forward with their aggression, but at the same time to prepare for what to do if they did so anyway,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “We were able to plan and prepare.” After the invasion, Biden strengthened the transatlantic alliance and united much of the world against Russia. NATO is now set to expand by two countries: Finland and Sweden. Biden also took executive actions aimed at younger voters: canceling up to $20,000 of student debt — more than 8 million people have already applied — and offering mass pardons for anyone convicted of a federal crime for simply possessing marijuana, while urging governors to do the same. Many aides privately admit they wish all the recent successes came sooner and easier — without the messy Afghanistan withdrawal, without the Democratic infighting, and without the cascade of coronavirus variants. Biden himself eventually succumbed to the virus, testing positive in July, though he recovered without incident. “Part of what’s in the DNA of the team is that he’s had to play through some really rough moments, for a long period of time,” Donilon said. “Obviously we went through a long period of time during the campaign when it didn’t look so good. It was true during the campaign and it’s true during the presidency.” Emily Guskin contributed to this report. .