In many ways, it seems Joe Biden has all but abdicated the presidency. As Donald Trump seizes the spotlight and takes center stage as the most active president-elect in memory, cutting deals with tech moguls and foreign leaders, Biden is nowhere to be seen or heard. That is, unless it’s to pardon his son – an act roundly condemned by the American people and even many of his allies. Oh, and then there was his appearance at Washington’s Kennedy Center to receive a standing ovation from perhaps the only audience in the nation that would even consider such a tribute in the dying days of his failed presidency.
Until Dec. 17, the 46th president had refused to exercise even minimal leadership on the matter of mysterious drones blanketing New Jersey, sparking all manner of conspiracy theories that cannot be ruled out due to his silence. He has granted a record number of pardons and commutations – starting with Hunter Biden – designed to make himself look merciful, but he has even failed in such virtue-signaling, sparking outrage in commuting the sentence of a flagrantly corrupt judge. However, perhaps most revealing in his somnambulistic final days in power is an order that is effectively a middle finger to his predecessor/successor and the American people.
Spite or Sabotage?
In an act that many would agree is spiteful at best, the enfeebled 46th president has ordered auctions to unload crucial steel components for the wall on our southern border for pennies on the dollar. Some might say it’s an act of personal retribution for first lady Jill Biden making goo-goo eyes at Trump during the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. But in the end, it is a hideous act of sabotage by a man once widely perceived as genial and compassionate but now seen by many or most as mean and petty.
When Biden initially ordered that existing materials for the wall be stockpiled or sold shortly after taking office in 2021, little was made of it since he had won the 2020 election, and his open border policies had yet to make their devastating impact and ultimately enrage the citizenry. But now, with a solid majority of the public favoring mass deportation of the millions of illegal immigrants allowed – or encouraged – to cross the border on his watch, it can only be viewed as undiluted vengeance that stands to attract more illegal immigrants and weaken national security. Of course, if Biden were actually concerned about matters of security, he would never have offered a de facto open invitation to migrants from dozens of countries now spread across the land who have overwhelmed communities far and wide. He did so simply as a one-finger salute to his predecessor, and now he is doubling down as the door prepares to hit him on his way out of the Oval Office.
Since he researched and ordered these components during his first administration, Trump will likely be able to replace them relatively quickly, which actually makes Biden’s order look even more shameful. But what this move accomplishes is to force the incoming president to re-initiate the nasty funding fight over the wall he endured during his first administration. The president-elect, as is his wont, did not mince words in condemning the decision. “We’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on building the same wall we already have," Trump said on Dec. 16. “It’s almost a criminal act … I’m asking today, Joe Biden, to please stop selling the wall,” Trump added, as he considers legal action and works with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to explore the possibility of a restraining order that would halt the auctions.
The Biden Legacy in Tatters
Part of the current Defense Authorization Act (DAA) allows the administration to sell or donate unused components of the border wall, but only if they are used to refurbish existing barriers. The DAA does not authorize an auction. However, as Biden issued the order without a public announcement in an attempt to quietly avenge his vice president’s resounding defeat, he has accomplished little more than add a last-minute act of pure retribution to a legacy already in tatters.
The volume of steel being hauled off near Tucson, AZ, a hot spot for illegal border crossings, is breathtaking. In an exclusive report by the Daily Wire, one border agent stated that a half-mile’s worth of parts, which cost taxpayers an estimated $300 million in total, is being hauled away every day in an effort to complete the project by Christmas. Trump originally invested a total of $15 billion in the construction of the wall, completing roughly 450 miles, with another 250 miles in process, before leaving office. One might have thought Biden would do little or nothing in his final days to avoid further scrutiny of his disastrous reversal of Trump’s border policies. Instead, he has done the opposite.
As they prepare to leave office, many presidents concern themselves with their enduring legacies. With his public support plummeting, Jimmy Carter fought for and succeeded in brokering an accord between Israel and Egypt. Bill Clinton went all out in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Absent such a last grand act, Biden could have simply walked away like other presidents and handed over the keys to the Oval Office. But now the final lines of his legacy will be a pardon of his son – while laughingly and ironically criticizing his own Justice Department for weaponizing the law – and sabotaging a major and popular priority of the incoming administration. Biden has taken his humiliating legacy and made it even more impossible for historians to sugarcoat in the years ahead.
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