President Joe Biden delivers his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House on January 15, 2025. Mandel Ngan/Pool/Getty Images When he ran for office in 2020, President Joe Biden vowed to turn the page on then president Donald Trump. But it's Trump who is returning to the White House for a second term in office. We speak with NPR's Asma Khalid, who covered the Biden administration, on the legacy he leaves behind. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at [plus.npr.org](https://plus.npr.org/). Email us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). _This episode was produced by Jordan Marie Smith and Brianna Scott. It was edited by Roberta Rampton, Adam Raney and Jeanette Woods. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun._

 President Donald Trump says the economy’s myriad struggles aren’t his fault — as markets continue to fall, a trade war swirls, and more and more people expect a recession. Instead, he says, the American public should blame former President Joe Biden. [Read More](https://qz.com/donald-trump-tariffs-gdp-report-markets-joe-biden-1851778466)

[Joe Biden’](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/joebiden)s top staff debated the possibility of the embattled Democratic president taking a cognitive test last year as he geared up for re-election but eventually decided against the idea, a new book is [set to reveal](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/us/politics/joe-biden-cognitive-test-age.html). Debate around Biden’s mental acuity and his age was an acute issue during the run up to the 2024 election, which eventually saw Biden [step down](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/21/joe-biden-withdraw-running-president) from his re-election campaign in favor of his vice-president, Kamala Harris. Now a new book by three senior US political journalists called 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America [has revealed](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/us/politics/joe-biden-cognitive-test-age.html) that Biden’s aides seriously discussed a cognitive test, reported the New York Times – one of whose journalists is an author of the book. “Biden’s aides were confident that he would pass a cognitive test, according to the book, but they worried that the mere fact of his taking one would raise new questions about his mental abilities,” the paper [said](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/us/politics/joe-biden-cognitive-test-age.html). The book reported that the discussion took place in February 2024. No such test was taken in the end. However, that summer Biden turned in a [poor debate performance](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/27/trump-biden-cnn-presidential-debate-reaction-highlights) against [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) that shocked voters and his fellow Democrats. Eventually, amid intense pressure to step down, Biden stood aside for Harris. Harris then went on to lose the presidential election to Trump, ushering in the former reality TV star and real estate mogul’s second term.

 Former President Joe Biden is accompanied by senior advisor Mike Donilon (L) and Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed last April. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Joe Biden has stage four metastatic prostate cancer. The former president made that announcement Sunday afternoon. It came just days before the publication of "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." An explosive book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. Original Sin chronicles what the authors say was Biden's steep physical and cognitive decline. Joe Biden repeatedly insisted he was capable of serving a second term. "Original Sin" argues his advisors and his family went to great lengths to hide that he wasn't. For sponsor-free episodes of _Consider This,_ sign up for C_onsider This+_ via Apple Podcasts or at [plus.npr.org](http://plus.npr.org/). Email us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). _This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlam. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun._

Watch: Hunter Biden slams Clooney, blames Ambien for father's debate performance Hunter Biden has reacted angrily towards actor George Clooney for questioning his father's mental sharpness during the 2024 election race - an intervention that led to Joe Biden dropping out. In an expletive-filled interview with the YouTube outlet Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, the younger Biden accused Clooney of exaggerating the former president's frailty. After meeting Biden at an LA fundraising event last summer, Clooney became one of the first major Democratic figures to call on Joe Biden to drop out of the race. Less than a fortnight later, the elder Biden announced he would step aside for the eventual Democratic nominee, Vice-President Kamala Harris. Getty Images President Biden and Hunter Biden pictured in November 2024, shortly after the president issued a pardon for his son The contest in November was ultimately won by Harris's opponent, Republican Donald Trump. Clooney inserted himself into the presidential campaign via a New York Times opinion article in July 2024 headlined "[I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/opinion/joe-biden-democratic-nominee.html)". The actor expressed support for the president's agenda but pointed to worries over his disastrous debate against Trump in which he stumbled over his words. In the interview, the younger Biden blamed it on a gruelling travel schedule and taking the drug Ambien, also known as zolpidem, which is used to treat sleep problems. "They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights," he said. In the New York Times article, Clooney said the meeting with Biden at the charity event showed he was "the same man we all witnessed in the debate". He added: "We are not going to win in November with this president." More details about the encounter at the fundraiser were revealed in a recent book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, who reported that the president "appeared severely diminished" and didn't recognise the actor. During the interview released Monday, Hunter Biden's first lengthy comments since the election, the former president's son denied that account and said Clooney had "attempted to cut the knees out from a sitting president". Asked why Clooney intervened in the race, Hunter Biden responded with a succession of profanities about the actor. "What do you have to do with… anything," he said in a message directed at Clooney. "Why do I have to… listen to you?" The younger Biden suggested that Clooney was motivated by disagreement over the former president's stance towards Israel. Clooney's wife Amal was on a legal panel which recommended that the International Criminal Court issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza. But President Biden rejected the idea, at one point calling the warrant "[outrageous](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c704y7gwr95o)". The BBC has attempted to contact the Hollywood actor for comment. Getty Images George Clooney (l) being greeted by President Biden at a Kennedy Center awards ceremony in December 2022 Hunter Biden also criticised reports by Tapper and others that he was heavily involved in White House meetings during his father's final months in office - even after being convicted of felony weapons charges. "I think I spent 12 days in the White House in the last two years of the administration," Hunter Biden said. Before leaving office, Joe Biden pardoned his son, who last year pleaded guilty to tax evasion in addition to being convicted on the weapons charges. The younger Biden's business dealings, legal troubles and addiction to alcohol and drugs became an issue during the 2020 presidential campaign, when the contents of a laptop he owned were leaked to the New York Post. Despite initial questions about its veracity, the leaked material was determined to be authentic, however the fallout did not prevent Joe Biden from defeating Donald Trump in that year's election. Speaking to the BBC earlier this year in his first interview since leaving office, Joe Biden said he didn't regret ending his re-election campaign, but dismissed the idea that quitting earlier might have changed the outcome. "I don't think it would have mattered," he said. An announcement from Joe Biden in May this year that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer revived questions about his health while serving in the White House. Watch: Biden's first interview since leaving the White House

Joe Biden is receiving radiation therapy for his prostate [cancer](https://www.theguardian.com/society/cancer) that was diagnosed in May, a spokesperson for the former US president said on Saturday morning. “As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” the spokesperson said. The news was [first reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/former-president-joe-biden-radiation-therapy-prostate-cancer-rcna237019) by NBC. The new round of treatment was expected to be spread over a five-week period, the spokesperson for [Biden](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/joebiden) said to NBC, and marks a new point in the former president’s care. He had already been taking hormone medication in pill form, as he had previously mentioned in public when questioned in the spring about his illness. Biden [was diagnosed](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/18/joe-biden-prostate-cancer-diagnosis) in May with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, his personal office had announced. The Democrat had left the White House in January after Republican [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) became the 47th president of the United States, following his 2024 [election victory](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/06/donald-trump-wins-us-presidential-election). Biden first [spoke out](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/30/biden-cancer-diagnosis-democracy) in public about his diagnosis later in May, saying he was optimistic about his prognosis and that “the expectation is we are going to be able to beat this”. The president returned to his home in Delaware after his single term in office concluded, and he turns 83 next month. In September [he underwent](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/04/joe-biden-surgery-skin-cancer) a procedure known as Mohs surgery to remove cancerous cells from his skin. _Reuters contributed reporting_

Joe Biden has finished a round of radiation therapy treatment, a spokeswoman for the former president [confirmed to CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-completes-round-of-radiation-therapy-aggressive-prostate-cancer/). The president originally [reported a metastasized prostate cancer diagnosis](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/30/biden-cancer-diagnosis-democracy) in May, and [announced he was receiving radiation therapy](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/11/joe-biden-radiation-therapy-prostate-cancer) earlier in October. Biden’s May diagnosis labeled him as having an aggressive, high-risk form of cancer. Biden, 82, has undergone radiation therapy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Radiation Oncology clinic, across the state line from the president’s home in Delaware. An Instagram story from Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden, showed the former president ringing a silver bell alongside a doctor at the clinic. “Rung the bell! Thank you to the incredible doctors, nurses, and staff at Penn Medicine. We are so grateful!” Ashley wrote alongside the video of her father. In cancer treatment, ringing the bell symbolizes progress in a patient’s program and the end of a phase of treatment. Other photos from Ashley include Biden posing with his wife, former first lady Jill Biden, and two of their grandchildren. “Dad has been so damn brave throughout his treatment. Grateful,” Ashley wrote on one of the images. Radiation therapy has not been Biden’s only recent medical procedure. The former president [had surgery to remove skin cancer lesions in September](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/04/joe-biden-surgery-skin-cancer). His spokesperson, Kelly Scully, said he underwent Mohs surgery, a procedure used to cut away skin until no evidence of cancer remains. Prostate cancer is [one of the most common types of cancer](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/18/joe-biden-prostate-cancer-explainer), with an estimated one in eight men receiving a diagnosis during their lifetime. The form Biden has is aggressive and had [spread to his bones](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/18/joe-biden-prostate-cancer-diagnosis), which makes treatment more difficult than if it were a localised cancer. Concerns about Biden’s mental and physical health were front and center on the 2024 campaign trail, ultimately [forcing the former president to drop out](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/21/joe-biden-withdraw-running-president) just three months ahead of the November election. In the coming days, Biden is slated to receive a lifetime achievement award in Boston at the Edward M Kennedy Institute on Sunday.