They were Biden’s biggest fans at the beginning of his presidency. What do they think of him now?

A few of the 46th president’s prominent boosters sound off to Andrew Feinberg on whether the reality matches the hype

(Getty)

In the months leading up to the 2020 election — and the dark days afterward when Donald Trump claimed not to have lost to Joe Biden — the twice-impeached ex-president’s supporters often pointed to the exuberance and performative nature of his fans. Surely, they said, these fans were clear evidence that Trump could not have gotten fewer votes than Biden. Biden didn’t pack venues with sweaty hordes of followers ready to cheer for every applause line.

Indeed, Biden’s lack of a cult of personality stood in stark contrast to even many of the Democratic stalwarts he bested in their party’s primary that year.

Some of his vanquished primary opponents even had names for their own answers to the Trump Train. Then-senator Kamala Harris had the “K-Hive” (a nod to singer Beyoncé’s enthusiastic fan base, known as the BeyHive) and, on the other side of the spectrum, the infamous Bernie Bros zealously defended Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders against anyone who dared take to social media to utter a cross word about the crotchety Democratic Socialist from the Green Mountain State.

Trump himself frequently claimed that Biden had no real supporters, pointing to the sparse attendance at his events (despite the fact that this was deliberately self-inflicted — the Biden campaign stuck stringently to social distancing rules during the heights of the Covid pandemic.)

But Biden’s lack of a performative online fan base ready to do rhetorical battle with his ideological foes doesn’t mean he hasn’t had his cheerleaders.

The Independent spoke to three of his most prominent boosters as the second anniversary of his inauguration approached to see whether they are still “Ridin’ with Biden”, and whether the first two years of the Biden presidency met their expectations.

(Dave Brown)

’A tour de force’

When Donald Trump and his allies were claiming to be victims of massive voter fraud perpetrated by voters in majority-Black Philadelphia precincts, Malcolm Kenyatta was frequently called on to refute the allegations on TV.

The then-first-term Pennsylvania state representative had a vested interest in the outcome of Trump’s election challenges. Kenyatta was, after all, one of the 20 electors whose votes officially made Biden the president-elect in December 2020. He had also gained significant recognition months before, when he became one of the 17 speakers who delivered a joint keynote at the Democrats’ virtual nominating convention. Notably, Kenyatta was just 30 years old.

His early support for Biden was a sign that younger Americans weren’t all writing off the septuagenarian Delawarian in his third campaign for the presidency.

Kenyatta told The Independent he thinks Biden and his term thus far have “been a tour de force in terms of an American presidency” because his policies have already made “a material difference in people’s lives”. He pointed to two of Biden’s top legislative accomplishments — the bipartisan infrastructure law he signed last year and the Inflation Reduction Act — as examples of that: “When you look at what those bills actually do, for the American people... with the cost of insulin being capped for folks on Medicare and Medicaid, the ability to begin negotiating drug prices, and when you look at what it has meant for investment in our infrastructure, like laying the groundwork for us to actually be in a position to do the rural broadband that so many elected officials have talked about. For many years, the actual resources to do it, we didn't have, but with the infrastructure plan, we're going to be able to do that.”

Kenyatta also hailed what he described as “the largest investment in human history in clean energy technology,” which he said would “lay the groundwork for America to be the place where we are owning the future”.

“I think that that has been, really the mark of this presidency: In a deeply divided Washington, sometimes with Republican support, sometimes without Republican support, the president has been able to deliver on key priorities for the American people,” he added.

Asked whether Biden’s first term lived up to what he’d hoped it would be at the outset, Kenyatta said: “I think the president has exceeded every expectation... This administration never gave up and got some really important things for the American people.”

What should progressives really think?

When Biden entered the White House in January 2021, he did so with the aim of not dominating the news cycle in the way his predecessor had done. For better or for worse, one way he has done that has been to keep the number of interviews he has given to a minimum.

Biden has not, as of yet, sat down for interviews with most large print news outlets (although The Independent stands ready to accommodate him should he change his mind) — but he has made a point of granting time to non-traditional media figures, including actor-turned-progressive podcast host, Brian Tyler Cohen.

In a phone interview with The Independent, the Los Angeles-based commentator said Biden has delivered on “just about everything” progressives asked for, with the exception of codifying Roe v Wade into law and a voting rights package.

“Otherwise, the legislation speaks for itself ... from the American Rescue Plan to the Chips Act and the Pact Act, and the gun safety bill, and the inflation Reduction Act, eliminating student loan debt ... that is a whole raft of progressive priorities,” he said. “So on that front there's really very little to be to be upset with.”

Cohen also said progressives who blame Biden for not somehow pushing moderate senators such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema harder are not being realistic. He believes they should instead credit the president for getting so many bipartisan bills through Congress.

“I think it's a little misguided to try to place the blame on Joe Biden, when these full-grown adults decided that they would rather put process over policy or democracy,” he said.

The Gen Z voters who defied expectations

When voters made Biden the first president since Franklin Roosevelt to see his party pick up Senate seats in the first midterm of his presidency, one of the driving factors behind that success was turnout among the youngest generation of voters. Those members of Gen Z (or Zoomers) — people who were born in 2004 at the latest — voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in races held across the US. Predictions from pundits that Biden would be unpopular with young voters or unable to connect with them were summarily refuted.

One of those young voters is Aidan Kohn-Murphy, a Harvard University freshman whose Gen Z for Change nonprofit grew out of a “TikTok for Biden” account he created during the 2020 election. The group now boasts over 500 creators who create pro-Biden content. They claim to have a combined following of 540 million people.

Kohn-Murphy told The Independent that in his view, the president has been “incredibly successful” over his first two years in office.

“I think that going into the presidency, even with control of the House and the Senate, he was facing a lot of roadblocks ... but I think the administration has had some incredibly significant legislative accomplishments,” he said, adding that he believes the Inflation Reduction Act in particular was “huge”.

He added that he believes Biden “has exceeded expectations for a lot of young people,” and pointed to the president’s attempt to cancel $10,000 in student debt for many borrowers despite that initiative being caught up in GOP-led lawsuits seeking to block it: “Making that move, I think, was incredibly important.”

Kohn-Murphy also credited Biden’s administration for making significant investments in digital strategy “in a way that no past Democratic administration has before”. He added the White House has been “really prolific” when it comes to pushing Biden’s message out to young voters.

“There has been really good messaging by both the administration and organic messaging about the importance of some of these legislative accomplishments that might have otherwise not been understood by Gen Z, because the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the Chips Act, those are both incredibly important things that actually do have significant impacts on ... young Americans’ everyday lives,” he said.

Kohn-Murphy predicted the Zoomers would come out in force to vote for Biden again if he chooses to run for re-election, so long as he keeps up his outreach efforts.

“I think that in the general election, young people will turn out to vote like we did in 2020, like we did in 2022, for Democrats, and I think the president will be a big part of that,” he said. “I think that as long as young people feel like the president is continuing to listen to young people, to bring youth voices to the table ... young people will turn out to vote in even higher numbers than we have before.”