When President Biden walked by means of the Capitol on Monday with mere minutes left in his presidency, a reporter requested how he was feeling.
“Well,” he replied as he made his manner by means of the corridors collectively together with his predecessor and successor, Donald Trump, the person he has repeatedly mentioned is a hazard to democracy.
Aides and longtime allies mentioned the soon-to-be former president’s face and demeanor informed a a lot completely different story.
“He’s clearly the opposite of well,” mentioned one longtime aide who reluctantly watched Monday’s inauguration, like a compulsory journey to the dentist.
“Anyone who has worked with President Biden knows that this was a painful moment for him,” the aide mentioned. “But he did it because he loves this country.”
The aide and others interviewed for this story defined that the day was powerful to abdomen on a number of completely different ranges.
For starters, the very last thing Biden needed was to see Trump return to the White Home, whilst he supplied a “welcome home” greeting to his rival when he entered the residence on Monday morning.
In actual fact, considered one of his final actions as president was to proactively pardon 5 members of his household, together with his siblings. The pardon highlighted the immense suspicion Biden harbors towards Trump. And he mentioned he sought to forestall the “baseless and politically motivated investigations” towards his relations.
“He knows what this man is capable of doing,” the aide mentioned. “It’s not misplaced on him.”
Biden additionally issued a pardon for members of the Home panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, one other assertion of kinds by an exiting president about his successor.
Nonetheless, Monday was additionally notably agonizing for Biden as a result of he wholeheartedly believes he might have defeated Trump once more, as he has informed allies privately and journalists publicly in current days.
And he hasn’t been capable of fully shake the sensation that he was betrayed by leaders in his occasion, together with Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whom he had thought-about an previous buddy.
“He believes that if not for the party acting the way they did, he would be in his second term,” one other ally mentioned. “He hasn’t gotten over that fully, and I’m positive he’s thought of it at the moment.
“We will hear about this moment in the memoir of his post presidency,” the ally mentioned.
In an interview with The Washington Submit final week, former first girl Jill Biden additionally acknowledged her remorse about the way in which the state of affairs turned out for her husband.
“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” she mentioned in an interview. “I learned a lot about human nature.”
Allies say Biden was confronted with those self same feelings within the remaining weeks of his presidency.
“It isn’t just that it’s the end of his life of public service,” the primary ally mentioned. “It was an abrupt ending and one they wouldn’t have seen coming a year ago.”
On Sunday, the day earlier than he left workplace, Biden spent the day in South Carolina together with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who helped him win the state in the course of the 2020 major that might in the end catapult him to the presidency.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he informed a congregation at a neighborhood Baptist church within the state as they applauded.
Steve Schale, a longtime ally who ran a pro-Biden superPAC, predicted that the entry to personal life for Biden — who has served the nation for greater than 50 years, starting because the youngest senator to serve — can be powerful.
“It’s hard on everyone, even those who are grounded,” Schale mentioned. “Coming to D.C. as America’s youngest senator and leaving as its oldest president is one heck of a run. He’s human like all of us and I suspect he’s spending a lot of time just thinking about that arc.”
On the identical time, Schale mentioned, “He’s such a big believer in fate that I suspect while reflective, he’s also seeing it in that way.”
