Where Joe Biden stands on issues that matter to voters

WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — After heeding calls from his party to drop out of the 2024 race for the White House, President Joe Biden has passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, but his views may still help shape the Democratic Party platform.

Following his performance in the first debate, Democrats feared Biden would not be able to beat former President Donald Trump in November. Though the president initially resisted pleas to step aside, he eventually passed the torch to Harris, who has energized Democratic voters.

Ahead of the 2024 election, NewsNation is committed to covering the issues that matter most to voters so they can make the most informed choices possible at the polls. You can also read similar policy breakdowns for former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Here’s a look at Biden’s policy positions and political views:

• Biden’s political tenure
• Student loans
• Inflation and national debt
• Violent crime, mental health
• Gun reforms
• Immigration
• Ukraine, Israel
• China’s military aggression
• Child care costs
• Abortion and birth control
• Fentanyl crisis
• Climate change
• Social security
• Rural development

What the polls said

Trump maintained steady support in the 2024 election as the presumptive Republican nominee when Biden was in the race, leading Biden 47% to 45% across seven key states following the first presidential debate of 2024, according to a recent Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll.

A New York Times analysis of recent polling from July also showed that if the election were held then, Trump would have won with 312 Electoral College votes, taking nearly every swing state with him along the way.

The Cook Political Report predicted Trump would win a trio of critical swing states: Nevada, Georgia and Arizona. Biden won all three of those states in 2020.

While the Cook Political Report listed Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as toss-ups prior to Biden’s departure, Trump led in those polls in all three states. Biden won all three in 2020, and those states could prove critical in determining a winner this November, too.

Many of those polls have been revised since Harris became the nominee. The Cook Political Report revised Arizona, Georgia and Nevada predictions, labeling those states a toss-up rather than leaning Republican.

Polling from The New York Times/Siena College also shifted, with Harris leading in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, though results were within the margin of error.

Biden’s political tenure

A longtime senator and later vice president in former President Barack Obama’s administration, Biden ran in 2020 as a “uniter in chief” seeking to heal the country from what he contended was years of division under Trump.

Since taking office, Biden has signed legislation that provided stimulus money in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, invested in infrastructure projects across the country and bolstered American clean energy initiatives.

Much of his first term, though, has been mired by high inflation, a record number of migrants crossing the southern border — two years in a row — and a spike in violent crime in many major cities.

Student loan forgiveness, education

• Pursued student debt relief with a plan that would have wiped out up to $20,000 in loans for millions of borrowers. The proposal was struck down by the Supreme Court.
• Biden’s administration has approved $127 billion in debt relief for nearly 3.6 million borrowers through the SAVE program, according to the Department of Education.
• Launched a secondary program that offers lower monthly payments based on income levels.
• In May 2024, the Biden-Harris administration approved an additional $7.7 billion in debt relief for 160,000 borrowers.

Inflation, economy and national debt

• Shortly after taking office, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, a $2 trillion stimulus package that delivered checks to Americans, boosted unemployment insurance benefits and expanded the child tax credit.
• Inflation peaked at a four-decade high of 9% in summer 2022 but has since receded to around 3.5%. Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, which invested in clean energy that the White House estimates created 117,000 jobs and will reduce Americans’ energy costs by as much as 9% by 2030.
• Though Biden has repeatedly claimed the national debt reduced during his time in office, it in fact grew from more than $27 trillion in January 2021 when he took office to nearly $34 trillion as of November.

Violent crime, mental health

• The president in March 2023 declined to veto a Republican-backed bill that blocked a Washington, D.C., law from taking effect. The D.C. law would have overhauled the city’s criminal code and eliminated most mandatory minimum sentences, NBC News reported.
• Biden signed an executive order in May 2022 aimed to advance “accountable policing and criminal justice” by creating a national database of police misconduct and mandating the adoption of body-worn cameras for federal law enforcement agencies.
• The administration’s fiscal year 2023 budget called for $35 billion to support law enforcement and crime prevention.
• Biden credited his American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (2022) for a 15% drop in violent crime overall (per FBI numbers) in the first months of 2024.
• Biden in July 2023 announced a new rule intended to make it easier for patients to find in-network mental health care through their insurance provider.
• The Biden-Harris administration announced in May 2024 that $46.8 million will be awarded in behavioral health funding during Mental Health Awareness Month.

Gun reform, ghost guns

• Biden in 2022 signed into law the most significant gun safety bill in decades, saying “lives will be saved” by the legislation.
• In September 2022, Biden announced the creation of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention that will be overseen by Vice President Harris.
• In April 2023, the Biden administration unveiled regulations that put more responsibility on the manufacturers of the DIY “ghost gun” kits that can be hard to trace without a serial number. Though the regulations were halted by a federal court in Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Biden’s regulations in August 2023.

Border crisis and immigration

• Biden has visited the southern U.S. border once during his time in the top job, when he went to El Paso, Texas, to meet with Gov. Greg Abbott and law enforcement personnel.
• In a surprise move and reversal of his previous stance, Biden’s administration said in October it would allow a segment of border wall to be constructed, citing an “immediate need” for it.
• A September 2021 directive from the Department of Homeland Security paused deportations of migrants who pose little or no national security risk, a policy the Supreme Court upheld in June 2023.
• The Justice Department has sued to stop state-level actions on barriers at the border, including Texas putting buoys in the Rio Grande and Arizona stacking shipping containers.
• The U.S. announced it will open migrant processing centers in Latin American countries to help reduce the number of people coming into the United States.
• The CBP One app was launched in an effort to streamline the processing of migrants before they arrive at the U.S. border, though the app was riddled with problems when it first launched.
• Biden issued an executive order in June 2024 to temporarily close the border and prevent migrants from seeking asylum at the border when a maximum number of daily crossings was reached.
• Also in June 2024, Biden issued immigration relief in the form of allowing undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens to live and work here legally.

Stance on Israel and Palestine, war in Ukraine

• The president delivered his most forceful statement of support yet for both Israel and Ukraine when he gave an Oval Office address asking Congress for an additional $100 billion in security assistance for the two countries, as well as for the southern border.
• Setting out a framework for the Israel-Hamas war, Biden said in a Washington Post op-ed that a two-state solution is needed for peace in Israel and Gaza.
• Biden shifted his stance to allow Ukraine to fire weapons supplied by the U.S. into Russia, according to U.S. officials.

China’s military aggression, role in fentanyl production

• Relations with China had been strained for much of Biden’s tenure, but the president said after a November meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco that the two countries agreed to restore military-to-military communications following a series of unsafe or unprofessional encounters between the two nations’ aircraft and ships.
• The pair at that meeting also discussed trade, fentanyl and climate change, but Biden maintained afterward he still believes Xi is a dictator.
• An executive order issued in August 2023 restricts and regulates high-tech U.S.-based investments going toward China.

Child care availability and costs

• The Child Care Stabilization Program, included in the American Rescue Plan, saved families about $1,125 per child per year, according to the White House.
  • The administration has called on Congress to appropriate another year of funding for the program.
• The administration proposed new rules in July 2023 that would cap childcare copayments for working families, encourage states to waive copayments for some families, improve financial stability for childcare providers and make it easier for families to access the Child Care & Development Block Grant program.

Abortion, birth control

• Established the Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access.
• Signed an executive order that seeks to help patients traveling out of state for abortion care, ensure health care providers comply with federal laws and promote research on maternal health care.
• The administration has defended FDA approval of abortion medication in court.
• He said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that granted the constitutional right to an abortion, was an “extreme” decision.
• Proposed new rules to expand access to birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
• Getting closer to the 2024 election, Biden pledged to continue to fight for access to reproductive care and contraception as well as urge Congress to restore the protections provided by Roe v. Wade.

Fentanyl crisis, opioid epidemic

• Biden has requested $1.55 billion from Congress to fund addiction treatment overdose prevention measures, and recovery support services.
• In May 2024, the Biden-Harris administration announced the approval of over $1.5 billion in state or tribal opioid response funding to address the overdose crisis.
• He also asked Congress for another $1.2 billion to pay for more Customs and Border Protection employees as well as border inspection equipment in an effort to crack down on illegal drug smuggling.
• Biden announced after his November meeting with the Chinese president the two countries agreed to continue cooperation on counternarcotics, with an emphasis on precursor chemicals that come from China.
• Biden said he and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are working “side-by-side to combat organized crime” and go after cartels operating in Mexico.

Climate change, global warming

• On his first day in office, Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accords after his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, removed the U.S. from the agreement while he was in office. The agreement sets a goal for nations to cap their carbon emissions.
• Biden established the first-ever National Climate Task Force, which is working on “protecting the most vulnerable Americans from extreme heat, strengthening the nation’s resilience to extreme weather events, and lowering energy costs for families.”
• Biden has set a goal of having electric vehicles make up 50% of all car sales in 2030. To achieve that, the administration is investing billions of dollars to bolster infrastructure like charging stations and battery components.

Social Security, Medicare

• Biden vowed in a February 2023 speech that he will “not cut a single Social Security or Medicare benefit.”
• In his 2024 budget proposal, Biden called for “protecting and strengthening” Social Security but offered few specifics on reforms to the program, CNBC reported.
• During the 2020 campaign, he proposed raising taxes on those making more than $400,000 to shore up Social Security but largely dropped the idea after taking office, Politico reported.
  • He proposed the same solution for extending Medicare solvency by 25 years.
• In a May 2024 statement, Biden pledged to continue strengthening these benefits and prevent Republicans from cutting them as long as he is in office.

Rural development

• One of Biden’s signature achievements, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $1.2 trillion for road, bridge, rail and port projects across the country.
• Biden pledged that high-speed internet will be available to all Americans by 2030 when he announced a $40 billion plan to expand access across the country.
  • An estimated 42 million Americans do not have access to broadband internet, creating challenges for both students and teachers in rural school districts across the country.

NewsNation’s Devan Markham contributed to this report.