by David Shephard, ©2026
(Jul. 17, 2026) — Joe Biden has been out of office for a little less than two years now, and while we usually have to wait a decade or two before we can get a better assessment of a presidency, I don’t think we have to wait any longer to conclude that Joe Biden was not in charge. He was not running his administration. He had a handful of advisors, who between the hours of 11 am and 4 pm, Monday through Thursday, would brief him and give him memos to read, and when action was required, at the bottom of the memos would be a couple of options for him to choose from. Biden was mentally feeble; he was not able to conjure up good questions, new ideas or other policy options. He was easily manipulated by his power-hungry wife, criminal son and left-wing advisors.
But I am curious, and for me the great mystery is what did Joe Biden really believe? Namely, could he tell the difference between his rhetoric and reality? His advisors, and wife, gave him his rhetorical lines to repeat to the public, and they told him nonsense; who can forget, “You did great job, Joe, you answered all the questions,” but could he see the truth? Did he believe the things he said such as his claim, “I don’t believe in polls”?
For example, in January of 2024 Biden pleaded with Congress for help on the border, claiming that he did “all he could do” to stop the invasion into our country and that he needed additional congressional authority to act. Did Biden really believe that? Did he not realize that he opened the border with a series of executive orders and therefore he could close the border through executive orders? My guess is that he was being manipulated by advisors who wanted open borders. They told him he did all he could do, and he believed them. Same thing with student loan forgiveness. In 2022, at a White House ceremony, Biden told students that he got his plan to eliminate student debt through Congress: “It’s passed. I got it passed by a vote or two, and it’s in effect.” That didn’t happen. Congress approved no such plan. He wiped out hundreds of millions in debt through an executive order. Did his advisors lie to him and tell him that legislation was passed?
Well, Biden announced this week that he is releasing his Presidential memoir, “Promise Me, America.” And as a favor to the party, he is withholding the release of his book until after the midterms, on November 17th. Democrats don’t want voters to be reminded of Joe Biden.
It is certainly true that all political memoirs seek to give the author’s side of the story, and I believe that there are two sides to every story, but based on what Biden said in his release, I don’t think he knows what went on during his four years in office.
To try to raise the hype for the book, his publishers produced a movie-like trailer with Biden narrating, although he slurred his words throughout, and in this release, he claims that he brought an end to the war in Afghanistan. This is false. Combat operations ended a year and a half before Biden took office. The Trump administration already planned to leave; Biden’s job was to organize an orderly, safe and honorable withdrawal. Biden, as Commander in Chief, failed. We got our military out before we got our civilians and Afghani allies out. We gave up the more defensible Bagram Air Force base and made the disordered retreat from the Kabul airport. In the process 13 American soldiers were needlessly killed. And we left tens of millions of dollars’ worth of weapons and equipment behind.
Biden will claim in his book that he ended the Covid pandemic. This is false. While it is true that he kept most all of the restrictions and emergency measures in place for another year, the reality is that the pandemic was over once the vaccine started to be administered in December of 2020 when President Trump was still in office. Biden also claims that he created millions of jobs during his term; this is also nonsense. Americans began returning to work before Biden was sworn in.
And in his book Biden probably won’t mention that he and Rep. Abigail Spanberger added trillions of dollars to the national debt allegedly to deal with the Covid pandemic. Well, such spending led to 9 percent inflation.
Biden will also state in his book that he “chose to step aside” for a new nominee. This is false. He was ousted by Democrats who knew he would lose to Trump. They no doubt threatened him to force him out. They probably told him that if he didn’t back out, they would release dirt about him and his family.
And if he had any real intention of stepping aside, he would have done that before the primary season started, when the party would have sufficient time to nominate a good candidate.
He also won’t mention in his book the fact that he opened the border and waved millions of people in, many of whom were unvetted criminals who, raped, killed and stole from Americans.
Biden will probably continue the nonsense that he could have beaten Trump. Other than Joe Biden, there are only two other people silly enough to believe that claim, and they would be two nutty left-wing professors, Allan Lichtman and Larry Sabato. Everyone else with even a little sense of politics and the state of America in 2024 knew Biden would lose and lose about as badly as Carter in ’80 and Dukakis in ’88.
So, sadly I don’t think Biden’s book will sell many copies, mainly because Biden has nothing to say. He knew very little about what was happening in the White House during the years he was President. One might even say that he is not a credible source.
David Shephard is a native and very proud Virginian. Raised in Fairfax County, David graduated from George Mason University and majored in Government and Politics. He spent decades in politics, campaign consulting, raising money and lobbying. He is also a longtime conservative blogger writing for numerous blogs. He is also the host of “The Virginia Gentleman Podcast.”
David is the author of Elections Have Consequences, A Cautionary Tale, and his latest book, Norton’s Choice: An Inside Politics Exposé.
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