This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.
After presiding over the most inclusive Administration in U.S. history, Joe Biden returned to Washington on Friday and urged a room of LGBTQ donors, activists, and candidates to step up the fight against Donald Trump’s efforts to erase or warp his legacy.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
“Folks, Donald Trump and his Republicans are trying to derail and distort our fight for equality. They’re trying to turn it into something scary, something sinister,” Biden said as he accepted a lifetime achievement award from the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, a group that trains and funds candidates. “There is nothing more American than the notion of equality. Nothing, nothing, nothing.”
That call to action received a predictably warm reception from LGBTQ donors, activists, and candidates gathered for three days of strategy sessions, many of whom know well Biden’s track record on their issues. Biden famously got ahead of then-President Barack Obama in voicing support for same-sex marriage in 2012. (“I got myself in a bit of trouble. But good trouble,” Biden joked Friday.) And as President, Biden signed the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act with the Respect for Marriage Act three years ago next week.
“Finally, through the hard work, faith, counsel, sheer grit from folks like you in this room and so many who came before you … the momentous battle was finally won,” Biden said. “Finally, finally, finally.”
But Biden acknowledged that the current climate is one that can drive exhaustion and pessimism. In less than a year, the Trump Administration has quickly instituted a wide range of anti-trans policies, and cut funding for various programs benefiting LGBTQ communities. On Monday, the U.S. government skipped marking World AIDS Day for the first time in 37 years. “The challenges ahead can feel daunting, particularly in the face of everything we’ve seen coming out of this reactionary White House,” Biden said.
Biden is starting to signal that he is ready to defend his legacy more forcefully. He has largely kept a classic, low-key profile since leaving the White House in January. He waited while the fervor over buzzy insider books about his time in office abated. A top fundraiser, Liz Bagley, has invited Biden allies to a holiday party this month to start the process of raising cash for an eventual presidential library. Biden has never really had a great relationship with the donor class, which in part explains why he spent part of his Friday with the deep-pocketed patrons who help train and elect LGBTQ candidates through Victory.
Yet Biden knows the task at hand. He’s counting on much of the rage having faded over his insisting on running for re-election and his drawn-out decision to exit the race. Many Democratic loyalists who were blinded by frustration over Biden’s stubborn streak now appear open to hearing his version of what happened.
And through it all, Biden and his team are trying to polish a legacy that, left alone, would not age well. He has spoken out only occasionally, while allowing Trump to belittle Biden’s tenure as merely a puppet operation run by aides without rejoinder. Even Biden’s portrait outside the West Wing is meant as an insult; while other Presidents have images of their faces, Biden is represented merely with a self-signing pen, meant to signal he was on auto-pilot for his four years.
But as much as Democrats are angry about how things turned out in November, they’re angrier at Washington right now. A Pew Research Center poll released just Thursday shows the partisan gap is wider than at any time since Pew started asking about anger at the government back in 1997. A whalloping 44% of Democrats say they feel angry—up 10 points from when Trump was last in power—and 47% say they’re frustrated. (Those poll numbers are from before the government went into a 43-day shutdown that cannot leave anyone happier with Washington.)
No strategist in the Democratic Party is urging clients to replicate Biden. But they all know he is the lone Democrat to lead a winning national ticket since 2012. And there is a lingering appeal that cannot be ignored. When Biden drops profanity, no one questions if it is because a consultant urged him to do it as a sign of authenticity or flash of give-a-damn empathy. When Biden’s discursives about private moments arise, it’s clearly from his heart, as it was Friday when he invoked his late son Beau’s work with Rep. Sarah McBride, the nation’s first transgender member of Congress.
Biden’s office announced in May that the former President had an aggressive form of prostate cancer. In October, aides said Biden had completed a round of radiation therapy. He also has had skin cancer lesions removed from his hands. On Friday, he appeared glad to be back in the spotlight even if he also looked every bit the 83-year-old great-grandfather he is. As when he was in office, he walked carefully and his voice sometimes sounded faint. But he gave the three men who introduced him hearty hugs like always.
Still, as he returned to the political sphere that dominated his life for a half century, Biden indulged his reputation as an unflinching optimist. “Friends, we are one of the only countries in the world that time and again has come out of every crisis stronger than we entered into that crisis.” Biden is hoping his reputation has the same fate.
Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter.
The post Biden Urges More Pushback Against Trump’s Efforts to ‘Distort Our Fight For Equality’ appeared first on TIME.
