Plans are afoot to cement President Joe Biden’s legacy before he leaves office, according to a memo drafted by White House communications director Ben LaBolt.
President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office on January 20, and Biden has some initiatives he wants to finish before it’s too late.
Some of the actions Trump will not be able to reverse, while other initiatives may be deconstructed.
“A presidency is not measured just in weeks, months, or four-year terms alone – rather its impact is evaluated for years and decades to come,” LaBolt wrote in a memo obtained by Bloomberg. “The seeds President Biden and Vice President Harris planted over the past four years are beginning to sprout and their potential will be fully unleashed long into the future.”
Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove and Eric Martin reported:
The final weeks of his administration will feature a string of efforts to enshrine his legacy. Biden gave a speech last week aimed at his economic record and hosted a conference on women’s health. His Environmental Protection Agency announced $735 million in awards for clean energy vehicles, one area where Trump may reverse course.
LaBolt indicated key agenda items yet to come, according to Bloomberg:
- Artificial intelligence, without specifying the measures, and student debt cancellation
- New funding awards via the 2022 computer chips law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and high-speed Internet funds for states
- Biden will “continue taking action to protect our lands and waters and continue our climate ambition alongside state, local, and tribal and business leaders.”
- New commutations and pardons, which LaBolt didn’t detail, though the White House hasn’t ruled out attempts to pardon people in advance of what it believes would be vindictive efforts by Trump’s administration to prosecute top Democrats
Biden is speaking with his team about delivering preemptive pardons to his allies, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Thursday.
Democrat and media allies have urged Biden in the last several weeks to pardon many of his comrades, including Christopher Wray, Justice Department lawyers, Joe Biden himself, the whole Biden family, Mark Milley, Liz Cheney, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Adam Kinzinger, among others.
A preemptive pardon could be seen as an acknowledgment of lawbreaking by the recipients, although some Democrats claim a preemptive pardon would only be intended to block President-elect Donald Trump from cleaning up Washington.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.