By noon on Monday, the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, will return to his Delaware home for good, ending a 52-year political career marked by ambition, guile, corruption, division, hypocrisy, and missteps.
Biden has frequently referenced his personal tragedies throughout his political career, shaping his public image as a family man and resilient leader. Biden ran for a United States Senate seat from Delaware in 1972 and won it in November when President Nixon won in a landslide against George McGovern. Nixon carried 49 states, including Delaware, so the citizens of Delaware engaged in ticket-splitting to vote for Biden as their senator.
But tragedy struck the young politician. On December 18, 1972, Biden's first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, was driving with their three children, Beau, Hunter, and Naomi, when a tractor-trailer struck their car near their home in Wilmington. Neilia and their daughter Naomi died from injuries sustained in the accident, but Beau and Hunter Biden were seriously injured but survived. While it was heartbreaking for his fellow citizens to see their young senator-elect have to face such a shocking personal setback, Biden used this moment to define his public image, a perception that would last for six decades. Fifteen days after the tragedy, Biden decided to be sworn into the Senate at the hospital bedsides of his two sons. Photographs of that moment were generously carried by hometown newspapers and etched the brand of Biden as a family man for the next six decades.
It was a brand that Biden would repeatedly exploit. Beau passed away on May 30, 2015, from brain cancer at the age of 46. About 45 days earlier, Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with full backing from President Barack Obama, although Biden was the sitting vice president and had served with Obama faithfully since 2008. Biden could have easily read the tea leaves, admitted that he had been passed over, and moved on. However, Biden sought to bring Beau's illness and death to the front pages, insisting in a classic "grapes-are-sour" moment that he had decided to pass on running for president because he couldn't withstand the tragedy that befell the Biden family.
When Hunter was recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, Joe Biden would repeatedly talk about it in loving terms even when Hunter committed federal felonies for lying on a gun permit. The President insisted that Hunter had done nothing wrong even when his laptop proved otherwise. He granted a blanket pardon to his son going back to January 1, 2016, the year in which Hunter signed up with Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company.
Biden's political strength has always been defined by back-slapping in the clubby Senate, making friends, trading votes, and rising up the ranks. Biden has spent his entire career in government, never running a business or managing a payroll, yet he championed policies that heavily impacted private industry. Biden used his political connections (Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and Senior Member) to help his sons, obtaining a position for Beau as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1997 when Bill Clinton was president. Biden served on the Senate Banking Committee overseeing the nation’s big banks which have a significant presence in Delaware. He used that perch to get Hunter Biden a job as a Vice President at MBNA, a big Delaware Bank.
Biden’s political career has been defined by opportunism, shifting positions when necessary to advance his ambitions, and using his folksy charm to sidestep scrutiny when challenged, including sharing stories about his parents in Scranton and family tragedies, to escape scrutiny.
In 1965, while a first-year student at Syracuse University College of Law, Biden was accused of plagiarizing five pages of a law review article in a paper he submitted, a charge that he acknowledged. In the 1970s and 1980s, Biden worked on legislation with segregationist senators, including James Eastland (D-MS) and Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who were profoundly racist. During his first run for the presidency in 1988, Biden delivered speeches in which he borrowed lines and themes from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock without proper attribution. Comparisons revealed that Biden had even mirrored his rhetorical delivery. Although Biden dropped out of the race, he never paid a political price for his behavior. Instead, he was rewarded when Barack Obama picked him as his running mate for the 2008 election.
Biden's strong friendships with the King of Pork, West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate Appropriations Chairman, helped Biden bring back loads of federal money to his small state, the second-smallest in the country by land area, covering approximately 2,489 square miles. [Several Metropolitan Statistical Areas, such as Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Atlanta, and Chicago are larger than the entire state of Delaware].
Biden famously commuted from Wilmington to Washington, reinforcing his image as an everyman politician. His strong advocacy for Amtrak secured billions in federal subsidies for the struggling rail service. He portrayed this as a work-life balancing initiative. But in classic Biden-style, he wanted the government to subsidize his decision and make it comfortable for him to commute. So, Biden became a staunch supporter of Amtrak, a loss-prone railroad that would have long ago folded if not for his efforts to channel federal funding for Amtrak. During his 36-year Senate career, Amtrak received at least $30 billion in total federal subsidies. The funding covered operating expenses, infrastructure improvements, and rolling stock upgrades.
Amtrak never reported an operating profit until fiscal year 2019, marking the first time it achieved a positive operating balance ($29.8 million) in its history. This "profit" excluded capital costs and federal subsidies, which still funded infrastructure, equipment, and other major expenses. Amtrak gratefully renamed the Wilmington Train Station as Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station.
Biden was not shy about getting close associates, such as his brother James and son Hunter, to peddle Biden's name and access in Washington to get lucrative contracts for them. The term "Big Guy" gained prominence in October 2020 when the New York Post published a story based on emails retrieved from Hunter Biden's laptop. One of the emails, dated May 2017, discussed a proposed equity distribution for a business venture involving a Chinese energy company (CEFC China Energy). It referenced a potential 10% equity stake being held "by H for the big guy." The general charge was that Joe Biden was involved in or profited from Hunter Biden's business dealings, particularly with foreign entities in China, Ukraine, and elsewhere, by using his position to influence policy or provide access to his son's business partners.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden again relied on his ability to conclude backroom deals to survive. Biden had been drubbed in Iowa and New Hampshire so badly that everyone had written him off. But Biden engineered an agreement with South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn to support Blacks for high office in exchange for Clyburn delivering his state's primary voters. The desperate Democrats decided to unite behind Biden, who promised to unify the country during the then-chaos of the Trump White House.
Once in office, Biden did the exact opposite. He went about tearing down every Trump executive order merely because it came from Trump's pen. His first actions aimed to make the country more 'humane' on immigration by reversing Trump's vigorous enforcement of the southern border. Today, America is struggling with over 18 million illegal immigrants and over half a million known criminals spread into its cities.
For someone who served as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden’s grasp of international diplomacy was pathetic. Over ten years ago, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said of Joe Biden in his book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War: "I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Biden refused to use his connections with the Kremlin to bring about a diplomatic end to the Ukraine war – and brought America dangerously close to nuclear war.
Rather than seeking to unify the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump, Biden’s administration aggressively prosecuted January 6 participants, including non-violent offenders, while his DOJ labeled protesting parents as potential threats. In September 2022, he called MAGA Republicans "a threat to the very foundations of our republic," accusing them of embracing authoritarian tactics and undermining democratic norms. It was a theme to which Vice-President Kamala Harris repeatedly returned last November. However, America rejected that premise when it voted Trump back into office in a landslide.
Biden's entire presidency was defined by calculated political maneuvering and the strategic use of power to achieve his goals. In November 2022, Biden publicly expressed that he wanted to deny Trump a second term. Nine days afterward, the DOJ appointed a Special Counsel; the same day, Fulton County prosecutors met with White House officials to collaborate on a RICO charge against Trump. Biden's non-stop criticism of Trump resulted in two assassination attempts on his political rival. To this day, Biden has not divulged the details of those attacks to the American public, nor has Biden apologized for what happened under his watch.
Even when it was evident that he was struggling with mental sharpness, he refused to acknowledge it publicly, relying on controlled appearances and avoiding unscripted press interactions—often seen behind his signature aviator glasses. Biden’s presidency was marked by an increasing reliance on aides and advisors, raising concerns about decision-making at the highest level. It was only after his disastrous June 27 Atlanta debate performance that concerns over his cognitive state became front-page news.
His lack of candor in policymaking has had disastrous consequences for America. Bidenflation continues to squeeze Americans. His "as-long-as-it-takes" war in Ukraine has decimated an entire generation and impoverished most of continental Europe. For 15 months, the warring parties in Gaza did nothing but escalate on both sides. It took Trump to step in and secure a cease-fire deal, but Biden insisted that he deserved credit.
Even as he leaves office, Biden has been using his political power for personal gain or to reward friends - a privilege that ordinary Americans he has always professed to represent do not have. He passed executive orders to forever ban oil drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific. He pushed through billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine after Trump handily won the election on a promise to end the war. He awarded America’s highest civilian honor to people like Liz Cheney, who used the federal government's vast levers of power to malign Trump, and liberal mega donor George Soros. Under Biden, America's global standing has eroded, with reckless spending, open-border policies, and selective law enforcement undermining trust in institutions. His administration’s weaponization of government agencies against political opponents mirrors tactics seen in unstable regimes.
As Biden exits the stage, Americans now turn to President Trump to restore order and confront the crises that have defined the past four years. Confidence in the nation is palpable as America is once again the shining city on the hill.
May God Bless America!
TIPP Picks
Selected articles from tippinsights.com And More
Foreign Affairs
1. The State Of Western Warcraft - Lee Slusher, The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
2. Russia’s Defeat of Ukraine’s Army Limits Trump’s Options for a Negotiated Settlement - Larry C. Johnson, The Ron Paul Institute
3. Align Foreign Policy ‘to Our National Interest,’ Secretary of State Nominee Rubio Says - Jacob Adams, The Daily Signal
4. Good Riddance Jake Sullivan - The Architect of America's Long and Winding Decline - Editorial Board, TIPP Insights
5. We Can Work It Out – Rubio Champions Diplomacy, Rejects Endless Wars - Editorial Board, TIPP Insights
6. What to Know About Hostage Deal Reached Between Israel and Hamas - Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal
Biden Administration
7. Biden’s Bizarro World Of Foreign Policy ‘Achievements’ - Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal
8. Biden’s Crowning Legacy: 20% Bidenflation And The Economic Carnage Left Behind - Editorial Board, TIPP Insights
9. All The President’s Pardons: Will They Define Biden’s Legacy As King Of Preemptive Pardons? - Editorial Board, TIPP Insights
10. Biden's Disaster — Most Voters Give Him Failing Marks For Leadership, Key Policies: I&I/TIPP Poll - Terry Jones, TIPP Insights
11. The Sad Tale of Moderate Joe Biden – Ruy Teixeira, The Liberal Patriot
12. Fact-Checking 3 Claims in Biden’s Farewell Address - Jarrett Stepman, The Daily Signal
13. Joe Biden: Last-Minute Sabotage Fails - Mike McDaniel, American Thinker
14. Special Counsel: ‘Well-Educated’ Hunter Biden Aware of Crimes - Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal
15. There’s A Good Argument That Biden’s Mass Pardons Are Unconstitutional - Andrea Widburg, American Thinker
16. ‘It’s A Disgrace’: Former Democrat Breaks Down Biden’s Disrespect That Made Her Leave The Party - Mariane Angela, DCNF
Trump Administration
17. Where Did MAGA Come From? - Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal
18. Trump Team Counts Down To Inauguration Day With Border Promises Video - Reagan Reese, DCNF
19. Trump Nominee to Lead Office of Management and Budget Faces Tough Questions from Democrats and Republicans Alike - George Caldwell, The Daily Signal
20. From California Democrats To Woke Military Policies, Trump Puts Left On Notice - Virginia Allen, Kristen Eichamer & Crystal Bonham, The Daily Signal
21. Rep. Ralph Norman: What Trump Told Me After I Voted Against Johnson for Speaker - Bradley Devlin, The Daily Signal
Politics
22. Kamala Harris Was Poised to Crush the Women’s Vote. What Went Wrong? – Joan Walsh, The Nation
23. GOP Culture War Fights Were Instrumental To Trump Win, Report Says - Wallace White, DCNF
24. So Where Does That Catholic Influence On Trump Come From? – Monica Showalter, American Thinker
25. Kamala Goes Full Cat Lady In Last-Minute Snub Of Usha Vance - Mary Rooke, DCNF
26. Attacks on Religious Freedom Continue Despite Washington’s Rhetoric - Thomas Jipping, The Daily Signal
27. Two House Democrats Vote to Pass Bill Protecting Women’s Sports from Biological Male Infiltration - Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal
