Biden Is No Longer Front and Center — and It’s Liberating to Him

It was not so long ago that President Biden expected to be the center of the world’s attention right about now. Had he not been forced out after his debate disaster, he would be in the intense, final stretch of his re-election bid.

Instead, this week underscored how quickly Biden has faded into the background, no longer perceived by many Americans as someone whose every political utterance should be debated at the dinner table.

Biden remains the nation’s president and commander in chief at a time when the world is confronted by war, economic fragility and rising tensions. The president is overseeing difficult negotiations aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hamas and bringing hostages home. He will attend the annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. at the end of the month. And he is weighing whether to allow Ukraine more flexibility to use long-range weapons against Russia.

“We’re working that out right now,” Biden told reporters as he boarded Marine One at the White House this week.

But the focus is elsewhere. That’s both a sign that the world is moving on and a fact that allows him to be a little more liberated.

On Tuesday night, while 67 million Americans watched Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump debate on their television screens (and likely millions more on phones and tablets), Biden spent the evening in a hotel suite at the JW Marriott Essex House in New York City, just a one-minute drive from Trump Tower. Earlier, he had attended a birthday party for his granddaughter, Finnegan, at Campagnola, a restaurant that says it specializes in “country-style Italian dining.”