WASHINGTON: Like prior lame-duck United States presidents, Joe Biden has been racing to finish unfinished enterprise in an try and bolster his legacy – and shield his signature insurance policies – earlier than handing over the keys to the White Home.
With archrival Donald Trump returning to power, Biden’s work to guard his administration’s official actions, and his personal popularity, has taken on added impetus, specialists say.
“Departing presidents usually attempt to each accomplish as a lot as they will previous to leaving workplace and likewise form public opinion of their administration,” Robert Rowland, a College of Kansas communications professor, advised AFP.
“There are various examples of intense lame-duck intervals”, notably when energy adjustments from occasion to occasion, stated Julian Zelizer, a historical past professor at Princeton College.
Biden, whose uncommon public appearances have proven him visibly bodily diminished, is not any exception to the rule.
His current determination to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal loss of life row inmates triggered the wrath of his Republican adversary.
In response, Trump has vowed to hunt to have much more defendants sentenced to loss of life.
“Biden is scared by what he fears President Trump might do,” stated Rowland.
“That concern is making him particularly forceful in attempting to restrict the agenda of the incoming Trump Administration and to solidify his administration’s accomplishments,” he stated.
The outgoing president had beforehand granted 39 presidential pardons and commuted sentences for practically 1,500 folks, with the White Home hailing it as “the most important single-day grant of clemency in fashionable historical past”.
“All presidents use their energy to pardon or commute sentences on the finish of their presidencies,” Wendy Schiller, a Brown College political science professor, advised AFP.
Zelizer stated the judicial actions could also be motivated by Biden searching for to “honor a number of the guarantees he made throughout his marketing campaign on felony justice”.
One in every of his most notable choices, nonetheless, was to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who he stated had been subjected to unfair remedy by the courts and prosecutors.
The transfer provoked sturdy criticism from Trump and Republicans, but additionally from shut Democratic allies.
Rowland stated the pardon has “positively had a significant unfavourable impression” on Biden’s popularity, including impetus to his remaining days’ work to form public opinion of his outgoing administration.
