Democrats see legacy-making opportunities for liberated Biden

President Biden’s decision to bow out of the presidential race has denied him the chance at a second term, but it’s also fueling new hopes among Democrats that he’ll be bolder in the remaining months of his first.

The lawmakers say Biden’s newfound status as a lame-duck president — a position few would have predicted even six weeks ago — has liberated their White House ally from the grueling rigors of the campaign trail and the delicate political concerns that come with seeking reelection.

They’re hoping an emancipated Biden will use his unusual station to advance a host of Democratic policy priorities — by executive action, if necessary — that would have no chance of moving through the bitterly divided Congress but could put a spotlight on specific issues and set off a messaging blitz during his final months in office. 

“He has five months between now and then to finish some things up,” said Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), the chair of the moderate New Democrat Coalition.

“He can really lean in [on] what he cares about and the mark that he wants to leave. And he doesn’t have to worry about what other people’s expectations are for what he’ll accomplish,” she added. “I think that could be liberating for him.”

Biden dropped out of the 2024 race last month and endorsed Vice President Harris to succeed him at the top of the ticket, a decision that shook the political world, threw the election into uncharted territory and turned Biden into the rarest of political animals: a voluntary first-term lame-duck president.

Biden is just the second president in 60 years not to seek a second term. The last was former President Lyndon Johnson, who stepped out of the 1968 race amid failing health and sinking popularity during the Vietnam War.

For the president, it’s the first time in his roughly five-decade political career that he does not have a next election to look forward to — and prepare for — after seven successful races for the Senate, two terms as vice president under former President Obama and one term leading the country himself.

The decision appeared to be an agonizing one for Biden, who was initially determined to remain in the race even after the disastrous June debate that sunk his campaign. Yet the unusual dynamics, according to a number of bullish House Democrats, could prove advantageous for the president on the policy front, allowing him to bolster his legacy in areas as diffuse as foreign policy, the economy and the environment in ways he might have avoided if he were still vying for a second term.

“President Biden no longer has a burning ambition to run for anything. And so for the first time in his life — his political life which, remember, goes back to when he was what, 27 or 26 — he gets to reflect on legacy,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said. “So he can burnish legacy, although he already has a pretty bright legacy as it is.”

Biden kicked off his swan song of sorts late last month with a slate of major proposals to reform the Supreme Court, including 18-year term limits for justices, enacting a binding code of conduct for the bench, and a constitutional amendment that says ex-presidents do not have immunity from federal criminal indictments — a direct response to the high court’s decision granting former President Trump some protection from his legal proceedings.

The proposals, to be sure, have little chance of becoming law — particularly the term limits and immunity amendment, which would require significant backing on Capitol Hill — but the effort pleased Democrats, who are now eager to see more action from an unconstrained Biden.

“The Supreme Court we have now is not the Supreme Court I learned about in my civics class,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “I hope he continues to talk about the need for there to be a court that is not influenced by money or not influenced by ideology, when you have [jurists] who actually want to interpret the Constitution and hold the court to the highest standard possible.” 

Connolly, who had once worked as a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Biden was on the panel, said he wants the president to find a way to ensure continued funding for Ukraine, which has come into question as more and more Republicans adopt an isolationist view of foreign policy.

Congress in April approved more than $60 billion for Ukraine, the product of a months-long battle — both between the parties and within the warring House GOP conference — over the future of foreign aid. But with Kyiv still at war with Moscow, Connolly said lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are concerned about the erosion of Washington’s support for its embattled ally going forward, worries that were amplified after Trump selected Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), a noted Ukraine aid critic, to serve as his running mate.

“I hope he could find a way to secure ongoing funding for Ukraine. Really important,” Connolly said. “Our allies and the Ukraine itself are deeply anxious about the uncertainty of the future and the U.S. commitment. And anything and everything he can do to ensure that commitment before he leaves office will be a really important part of his legacy.”

McGovern said Biden’s lame-duck status could also open a lane for him to facilitate a peace deal in the Middle East, an issue that has been at the forefront in Washington — and around the globe — after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The war has bedeviled Biden and Democrats politically since the deadly offensive, pitting the party’s staunchest allies of Israel against pro-Palestinian progressives incensed over the mounting civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip.

“He has an opportunity to try to broker a lasting peace in the Middle East and to maybe get us on the path toward reconciliation and peace in the world rather than always on the edge of major conflict,” McGovern said.

The Massachusetts Democrat also said he wants Biden to “change our stupid policy toward Cuba,” calling it “a relic from the Cold War.”

“Get them off the terrorist list and do what he can with his executive order to normalize relations as much as he can,” McGovern said. “And it’s not only the right thing to do because it will help the Cuban people, but we have hundreds of thousands of Cubans coming to the United States because they can’t survive in Cuba because of all the sanctions we have in place.”

Democrats are also pushing Biden to take additional steps to protect the environment. 

Last month, Rep. Nanette Díaz Barragán (D-Calif.), head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, wrote to the president urging executive action to curb pollution within the international shipping industry, a major emitter of climate-altering greenhouse gasses. That effort has been endorsed by more than a dozen other House Democrats, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), head of the Progressive Caucus, and Mark Takano (D-Calif.), whose Southern California district is plagued by some of the worst air quality in the country. 

“Facing the rapidly growing threat of climate change, the shipping industry must change course to avoid devastating impacts,” the lawmakers wrote to Biden. 

Other Democrats pointed to more obscure issues they want Biden to broach in his final months in office. 

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a senior Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, said he’s hoping the president will clarify that the United States has no intention of buying up bitcoin as a formal policy — a response to Trump’s vow, delivered last month at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, to use a second term in the White House to launch a federal policy of stockpiling the controversial cryptocurrency.

“He should make it plain that the U.S. government is not going to use taxpayer dollars to invest in crypto,” Sherman said. “I was shocked to see Trump suggest … the other side of that.”

There are clear limits, of course, to what Biden can accomplish without the help of Congress. And several Democrats noted that — on issues like expanding paid family leave, child care access and other family friendly economic benefits that are pillars of the party’s agenda — the administration has already adopted a number of executive actions, leaving little more the president can do without more funding from Capitol Hill. 

“I think he’s done all he can do outside of the appropriations process,” one Democratic aide said. “He’s doing the work, but without the appropriators — without money — there’s very little you can do. He’s done all he can regulatorily.”

There are also the election-year considerations Biden must still be wary of even though he is off the ticket. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) urged the president to hold off on any legacy-marking moves until after the November election in case they have a downward pull on Harris.

“I wouldn’t think that he’s gonna be trying to do dramatic things that they think would undermine Kamala’s chances there that could be used against her,” Ivey said.

At the minimum, however, Democrats are urging Biden to stay the course even in his new political capacity, arguing that his legislative track record speaks for itself — lame duck or not. 

“He should do what he’s been doing: The best possible job he can do as president, and hopefully communicating that to the American people,” Sherman said. 

“Nothing is as good for politics as good policy and good performance.”