Rantz: As Joe Biden says ‘goodbye’ in his farewell address, we should say ‘good riddance’
Jan 15, 2025, 11:55 AM

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech about his foreign policy achievements in the Ben Franklin Room at the State Department's Harry S. Truman headquarters building on January 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
Joe Biden will stand before the nation and deliver his farewell address tonight. While he says goodbye, we should have one message: Good riddance.
Expect Biden to paint a rosy picture of his presidency, rewriting history with the kind of revisionism that would make Orwell blush. He鈥檒l tout “accomplishments” that have made life harder for everyday Americans and redefine failures as successes. But we鈥檙e not falling for it. The election of Donald Trump makes that point.
Biden鈥檚 presidency will be remembered as one of the worst in our nation鈥檚 history 鈥 a disastrous recipe of economic incompetence, divisive identity politics, a willfully porous border and rampant crime.
More from Jason Rantz: New law brings small cafes to every Washington neighborhood that wants one
Joe Biden’s truly terrible legacy on inflation and immigration won’t make it into his speech
Joe Biden, upon taking office, chose to unleash a tsunami of government spending with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which he will claim a success in Wednesday’s farewell speech. His Inflation Reduction Act did the exact opposite.
The Biden administration ignored warnings from economists across the spectrum that his agenda would stoke inflation. And sure enough, inflation skyrocketed to a 40-year high, crushing families from Auburn to Bellingham and Seattle to Spokane who were already struggling to make ends meet. Gas prices soared, grocery bills became nightmares and housing costs spiraled out of control. Biden and his flacks tried to pin the blame on “Putin鈥檚 price hike,” but Americans knew better. His policies created the mess, and they鈥檒l be paying for it long after he鈥檚 gone.
Biden鈥檚 border policies 鈥 or lack thereof 鈥 created the worst immigration crises in modern history.
On his first day in office, he dismantled Trump-era policies like Remain in Mexico, effectively sending a “come on in” signal to the world. The result? A record-breaking 2.8 million encounters at the southern border in a single year and an untold number of “got-aways.” Fentanyl poured into our communities, killing a record number of Americans, including here in Washington. Sanctuary cities like New York, Denver and Chicago buckled under the strain of waves of illegal immigrants they weren鈥檛 equipped to handle. Biden and his administration pretended there was no crisis at the border until he was forced into action with only months left in his administration, proving he could have done something for 3.5 years, but chose not to.
More from Jason Rantz: Will dangerous pimps taking over Seattle follow Washington Democrats鈥 gun laws?
Embracing identity politics and dismantling the criminal justice system
Joe Biden will no doubt claim in his speech Wednesday night that he promised to unite the country and did just that. That would be a lie. He spent four years dividing it further.
Biden’s obsession with identity politics turned meritocracy into a dirty word. From hiring cabinet members, picking a vice president and electing a Supreme Court justice based on their identity over qualifications, to relentlessly pushing divisive narratives on race, gender and equity, Biden amplified cultural schisms. He listened to the extremists in his party or allowed them to control his White House. His administration made everything about race or gender identity while simultaneously accusing critics of racism or bigotry. This was not leadership; it was pandering at its most destructive.
Biden鈥檚 soft-on-crime approach emboldened criminals and gutted law enforcement.
The Radical Left promised to “dismantle the criminal justice system,” and they did just that. He effectively embraced the “defund the police” rhetoric of his party鈥檚 left-wing extremists by doing little to push back. Even as crime surged across major cities, he remained passive. Cities like Seattle, Portland and Chicago became cautionary tales with murder rates climbing and businesses fleeing urban centers. Seattle, for example, saw a record-high number of homicides, but Biden — and local Democrats — pretended there was nothing wrong at all.
More from Jason Rantz:听King County waited until Metro bus driver was killed before pretending to take safety seriously
America will soon have a brighter future
As Joe Biden wraps up his presidency, his legacy is one of failure. Tonight, he will try to tell a different story 鈥 a story where he saved the country from ruin, brought Americans together and laid the groundwork for a bright future. But the truth is in the numbers, in the shattered communities and in the voices of the millions of Americans who struggled under his watch.
Biden will also be remembered as the president who wasn’t. He’s clearly been experiencing a mental decline, and the shameful officials and staffers around him, aided by left-wing media, pretended nothing was wrong at all. His staff likely pretended so they could stay in power while they were the ones truly controlling the White House. The left-wing media pretended he was fine because they simply hated Donald Trump.
Thankfully, there is hope on the horizon.
President-elect Trump will take office on Jan. 20 and clean up the mess Biden created. America deserves a leader who puts the interests of its people first. Someone who prioritizes safety, economic growth and unity over pandering and political gamesmanship. We deserve a president who isn’t in decline.
Tonight, Joe Biden says goodbye in his speech. On Monday, the hard work of rebuilding begins.
Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the聽podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on聽,听,听听补苍诲.