SCRANTON, PA – At 10:00 in the morning on November 5, no one walked along the sidewalk. A crew performed work atop the roof of the house next door, and cars sometimes passed by, but otherwise, activity was limited around Joe Biden’s Scranton, PA childhood home (pictured above).
Less than four months have passed since the 81-year-old president announced he’d leave the ticket, paving way for Vice President Kamala Harris’ ascent to the Democratic nomination.
That effect can be seen in the level of activity listed on Biden’s schedule for election day: No public events.
“I don’t like Biden, but I think Kamala is better,” said Jessica Carpenter, a sophomore pre-physician student at Marywood University, a private catholic college 5 minutes from Biden’s childhood home. “He’s too old.”
Concerns over Biden’s age have remained a constant over his presidency. Born with a stutter and prone to gaffes since the early days of his more than five-decade political career, Biden’s stumbles garnered intense scrutiny during his time in the White House. Already facing a sub-40 percent approval rating, Biden’s poor performance in the June debate against former President Donald Trump provided the fuel for Democrats to execute his ouster.
“I don’t really know anything that he accomplished,” Carpenter said, a sentiment shared by a plurality of voters who declined to give Biden credit for addressing much of the issues that have faced his presidency, per a March survey by Data for Progress.
Nonetheless, Biden spent election day presiding over a country with an inflation rate of 2.1 percent, which the New York Times described as “basically back to normal” following the COVID-19 pandemic. He also spent the day having created more than 16 million jobs, according to the White House. And he spent it as arguably the most legislatively successful president since Lyndon B. Johnson.
On March 11, 2021, Biden achieved his first major legislative accomplishment as president with the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act. The $1.9 trillion stimulus package that injected funds into the economy in a bid to resuscitate activity following the pandemic. Eight months later, Congress passed Biden’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provided $1.2 trillion in spending for the building of bridges, roads, water treatment facilities, and expanded broadband, among many other projects.
Originally, that bill was meant to be passed alongside a clean energy and childcare package but after months of negotiations, Democrats were unable to secure the support of then-Democratic but now independent senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, who held the two votes needed to pass the package along party lines. So, Congressional Democrats moved to refocus efforts on bipartisan legislation.
“When I ran for president, I was told the days of bipartisanship were over,” Biden said in a June 2023 address. “But I refused to believe that, because America can never give into that way of thinking.”
The next bill passed was the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Advanced in the wake of two mass shootings, the legislation enhanced background checks, moved to limit illegal gun trafficking, and funded violence prevention programs. Less than two months later, Congress also passed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, a $52 billion bill aimed at bolstering America’s semiconductor manufacturing industry. The following day, it moved the Honoring Our PACT Act that authorized $797 billion to improve the healthcare of veterans exposed to toxic substances during their service.
However, a surprise materialized during that same period. Manchin and Senate Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) surprised the world by announcing an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act, a $485 billion spending bill with $790 billion in offsets designed to diversify the American energy industry and combat climate change. The party-line bill, which Biden signed on August 16, is considered a signature achievement of his presidency and is described as America’s largest investment in fighting climate change.
The surprise nature of the bill left Republicans bitter and feeling duped, having agreed to the previous bipartisan legislation under the impression that the Inflation Reduction Act would not pass. Nonetheless, amid concerns over same-sex marriage protections following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Congress agreed to the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act in December of 2022 which requires states to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages while also protecting religious liberties.
That same month, it also passed the Electoral Count Reform Act which revises the process of casting and counting electoral votes for the presidential election in a move to protect the transition of power following the events of January 6.
“I don’t like the guy,” David Evans, a 71-year-old neighbor of Biden’s childhood home said of the president, “[but] I don’t like what Democrats did with Joe Biden.”
With Biden’s removal from the ticket, his name has been invoked less and less by the press and his fellow politicians. With his approval rating still hovering around 40 percent, some have worried he will harm Harris’ chances.
While he has largely remained away from the campaign trail, Biden returned to Scranton in September of 24. However, this visit centered around a trip to the place where he was baptized, St. Paul’s Church (pictured above), for the funeral of his childhood friend Thomas Bell was held.
“All the years later, no matter what was going on, I was his Joe and he was Tommy,” Biden said in a eulogy for his friend.
At noon on election day, the church sat quietly as cars pass by and children played across the street at its affiliated school that Biden once attended. Much has happened since Biden’s visit and across town voters emerged from Scranton High School saying that they were focused less on yesterday’s accomplishments and more on tomorrow’s solutions.
“Roe is the number one reason I came today,” Tracy Murphy, 52, a supporter of abortion rights, said. “I’m okay with [Biden leaving the ticket], because it was him and Kamala at the very beginning, and when he dropped out, she went right into that place.”
(Photo credit: Alex J. Rouhandeh)
About the author(s)
Alex J. Rouhandeh
Alex J. Rouhandeh is a Master of Arts student in the politics concentration at the Columbia Journalism School, as well as a special correspondent for Newsweek.