In the early days of any administration, there is a tendency for new presidents to blame their predecessors for problems they claim to have inherited — and there is a window during which the public is willing to accept such arguments. But for President Biden, the window on blaming Donald Trump has now closed. As Americans process the tragic news of double-digit deaths of U.S. service members in twin terrorist attacks in the midst of a botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, it will be hard for Biden to dodge responsibility.
When Biden took office, COVID-19 was two weeks past its winter peak, the U.S. was administering over a million vaccine doses a day, and the economy had bounced back. Biden nonetheless falsely said that he had inherited the “worst crisis since the Great Depression” and claimed that the administration was launching a vaccination campaign from scratch, and he told Americans to “mask up” for just 100 days in keeping with his campaign vow to “shut down the virus.” Yet we’re now in the midst of a COVID-19 surge, and more than a hundred days since his first hundred days, the CDC still maintains masking guidance — even for the fully vaccinated.
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