Class Act: A President Who Knew Right From Wrong

Jeff Robbins on Aug 11, 2026

"Don't it always seem to go," Joni Mitchell wrote decades ago, "that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?" Last week's Senate passage of legislation authorizing new sanctions against Vladimir Putin's Russia was much-ballyhooed, but much ado about little: The most meaningful sanctions, tariffs against countries purchasing Russian exports, were ones that the sitting president has sole discretion to impose. Given President Donald Trump's soft spot for Putin, as long as he is president, the Russian strongman has nothing to fear.

Coupled with the news that former President Joe Biden's prostate cancer has metastasized further, it's another reminder that less than 20 months ago America had a president it could be proud of, who knew right from wrong and cared about the difference.

That Ukrainians remain free and continue to block Russia from subjugating them four and a half years after Russia's invasion is thanks above all to Biden's moral clarity and his leadership. The moral clarity was immediate. "The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine, without provocation, without justification," Biden informed the Nation hours after the invasion. "This is a premeditated attack."

Then came the leadership. Biden spearheaded the West's defense of Ukraine, putting together what would be $127 billion in U.S. military, economic and humanitarian aid and spurring Europe to develop aid packages now far exceeding that amount. His daring trip to Kyiv to personally demonstrate our commitment on the first anniversary of the invasion electrified Ukraine and showcased America at its best.

Biden's successor has alternately treated Ukraine with a cold shoulder, disdain and outright hostility. But the work done by Biden in defense of Ukraine's freedom laid the foundation that has enabled it to repel Russia's superior military. Russia's advance into Ukraine has been all but stopped, and it's hemorrhaging troops. The Ukrainian General Staff, admittedly not disinterested, reports that Russian forces sustained nearly 43,000 casualties last month alone, a new monthly high. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also not disinterested, announced recently that 700,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since Putin decided to try to swallow Ukraine whole, with approximately 1.7 million casualties overall.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones are hitting Russian military, industrial and commercial facilities deeper and deeper in Russian territory, and Ukrainian drone technology has developed to the point where countries across the globe are beating down Kyiv's doors to buy it. Thanks substantially to Biden, Trump's haughty "You don't hold the cards" lecture to Zelenskyy in the Oval Office has aged poorly.

Biden found himself derided by the far Right for his support for Ukraine after it was invaded in February 2022 and derided by the far Left for his support for Israel when it was invaded on Oct. 7, 2023, by 5000 Hamas killers. Once again, it was moral clarity and it was leadership. Hamas' slaughter of Israelis was, Biden emphasized, "sheer evil," not a point of view that endeared him to the Democratic Socialists of America or academia. Just months after visiting Kyiv in the middle of a war, Biden flew to Israel 11 days after Oct. 7 to tell Israelis, "You are not alone." For reassuring Israeli that the friendship between America and Israel was "rock solid," Biden was smeared on the far Left with epithets like "Genocide Joe."

A good man, a temperate man, a man of kindness and judgment, grounded in an appreciation for American democracy and what America means to the rest of the world -- that is what we are talking about when we talk about Joe Biden. It isn't fashionable to speak highly of him presently, but historians will do so.

"I know speaking of unity can sound like a foolish fantasy these days," Biden told the country in his 2021 inaugural address. "I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our country has been in a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear and demonization have long torn us apart."

Wise words from a man of wisdom. America may be too rattled, frayed, divided and angry to pause to appreciate what we had in Joe Biden. But those who come after us will.

Jeff Robbins' latest book, "Notes From the Brink: A Collection of Columns about Policy at Home and Abroad," is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play. Robbins, a former assistant United States Attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment and a longtime columnist, he writes on politics, national security, human rights and the Middle East.