No go, Joe? A year on, Biden's big promises hit reality

Enemies within, a radicalised opposition and messaging failure have hamstrung the president’s first 12 months

- Lauren Gambino and David Smith

Just over a year ago on 13 January, Joe Biden took the oath of office as the 46th president at the US Capitol in an inauguration ceremony devoid of the usual crowds due to pandemic restrictions.

Biden identified four crises facing America: the coronavirus, the climate, the economy and racial justice. He could have added a fifth: a crisis of democracy in a divided nation where, just two weeks earlier, the Capitol had been overrun by insurrectionists. How has he fared on all five counts?

Coronavirus

Biden took office pledging to lift the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, which he called “a raging virus” that “silently stalks the country ”. And there was a period of his presidency when it appeared he had.

Last summer vaccination rates soared as the virus receded and the economy rebounded. Touting the administration’s progress at an Independence Day celebration, Biden declared that the US was “closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus”.

But then came the arrival of the Delta variant, followed by the extremely transmissible Omicron variant. Biden rushed once again to restrict travel but it did little to slow the spread. In recent weeks, Covid19 cases have reached record levels . Deaths are rising nationally and the number of Americans hospitalised with the disease is higher now than at any point during the pandemic.