Nonetheless, during his farewell address at Joint Base Andrews, the one-term president, at 81 years old, appeared defiant regarding his record as he thanked his aides for the last four years of his presidency and the past half-century in D.C.

INAUGURATION DAY 2025: EVERYTHING TO KNOW AHEAD OF TRUMP TAKING OFFICE

“We’ve a lot more to do,” Biden told the crowd Monday before he and former first lady Jill Biden flew to California. “We heard the inaugural address today. We have a lot more to do.”

“Mark my words: History is going to judge what you’ve done as the most significant contributions that’s been made for all of America,” he said.

Earlier in the day, as he waited to welcome Trump at the White House for tea with their wives, Biden told reporters his message to his predecessor and successor would be one of “hope” and joy,” parroting former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris‘s respective campaign slogans.

Biden’s address at Joint Base Andrews capped a day in which he sought to emphasize the importance of a peaceful transition of power, a courtesy that was not provided to him by Trump.

“Welcome home,” Biden told Trump publicly on the White House’s North Portico.

As Trump signs his first executive actions, Biden’s post-presidency plans remain unclear, except for a book deal and the assumption he will continue his academic and charity work, including through the Beau Biden Foundation, named after his son who died from brain cancer in 2015.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Biden said Sunday, his final full day as president, during a service at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in South Carolina.

However, Biden’s presidency will likely always be overshadowed by how it ended as opposed to what he considers to be his legislative and policy accomplishments, including the American Rescue Plan Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. He’s also touted appointing Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, leading an international coalition in support of Ukraine, and brokering a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. That list excludes some of his administration’s more notable failures, including the deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and his inability to counter rising consumer prices.

Biden sought to run again in 2024 despite promising to be a “bridge” to the next generation and the visible signs of aging that White House aides repeatedly dismissed even after former special counsel Robert Hur assessed in an interview that Biden was “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

When pressure set in from Democrats after a disastrous debate against Trump over the summer, Biden bowed out of the race and gave Harris just 100 days to launch a presidential run.

As Biden closes this chapter of his life after 36 years as one of Delaware’s two senators and then eight years as Obama’s vice president, Biden’s average job approval rating is net negative 17 percentage points, 39% approve-56% disapprove, according to RealClearPolitics.

Although many may downplay the significance of the 46th president’s popularity, it will, for instance, impede his ability to fundraise for his presidential library, a process already delayed because of his initial decision to seek reelection and deprive Democrats of a primary.

“President Biden’s legacy definitely is probably diminished, which really is too bad,” Iowa Democratic official Charlie Comfort told the Washington Examiner. “I almost wish he just hadn’t run in 2020 so that we could have let a different generation step up and take the Democratic Party mantle. Maybe, just maybe, things would be different now.”

“Would we have won in 2020?” asked Comfort, an at-large member of the Oskaloosa, Iowa, City Council and vice president of its school board. “Who knows? But I think we would have won in 2024 if somebody other than Joe Biden had been the nominee in 2020. It’s hard for me to say what his legacy is now because I just think the past couple years have really been a mess, which speaks not so much to him but to just the toxic nature of politics as it is now in the United States.”

That ill-will was not helped by Biden, who continued to declare he could have beat Trump in last year’s election. Biden’s wife expressed her own disappointment with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for pressuring her husband to step down as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after the Biden-Trump debate laid bare concerns about his age, physical capabilities, and mental capacity.

“When Trump was running again for reelection, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him,” Biden told USA Today.

His wife added to the Washington Post of Pelosi, “We were friends for 50 years.”

Regardless of his approval ratings, Biden reemerged after disappearing from the political spotlight following last November’s election to use his executive power while he retained it. He forgave more federal student loan debt amid legal challenges and protected more federal lands from Trump’s desire to “drill, baby, drill,” even disregarding proper amendment procedure to declare the Equal Rights Amendment part of the Constitution.

However, after angering Democrats last December with his expansive, unprecedented pardon of his son Hunter Biden, the former president rankled them again with his announcement at 11:38 a.m., 22 minutes before the end of his presidency, that he was also pardoning his businessmen brothers, James Biden and Francis Biden, as well as his political adviser sister, Valerie Owens.

In another act of defiance, Joe Biden contended his family has received “unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics” and that he had “no reason to believe these attacks will end.”

“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” the former president wrote. “But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and finances.” 

He went on, “That is why I am exercising my power under the Constitution to pardon James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden. The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.”

Earlier in the morning, Joe Biden also pardoned retired Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one-time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the members and staff of the House Jan. 6 committee.