Biden leaves office nostalgic about five-decade career, and frustrated by how It ended

President Joe Biden exits the White House with a record of accomplishment but also lingering resentment toward some onetime allies who pushed him from the race. And he’ll depart amid a strained relationship with his No. 2 and late replacement on the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris.

As President Joe Biden was making one final lap around town this week, delivering farewell speeches to his diplomatic corps, military leaders and the nation at large, his appearances belied a grim reality: This is not how he’d hoped his half-century career in Washington would end. Biden leaves office on Monday reluctantly, firm in the view he had more to give and more to accomplish, if less sure his health and vigor would have kept up. He’ll bring with him a record of accomplishment but also lingering resentment over the way his political career ended. He no longer speaks regularly with some onetime allies who pushed him from the race; many in his party blame him for handing the White House to Donald Trump. And he’ll depart amid a strained relationship with his No. 2 and replacement on the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris. The capital city that will recede from view as he departs on his helicopter is now the domain of his archrival Trump, whose return to Washington is the very outcome Biden sought most to prevent. Instead of being remembered as an American statesman who vanquished Trump once and for all, as he thought he had after his 2020 victory, he’ll be seen as an interim president between two administrations led by a man he once labeled a fascist and a threat to democracy. “While my term in office is ending, the work continues,” Biden said in a speech to mayors on Friday, one of his last public appearances as president. “Your work continues.” Biden’s single term was an eventful one.