Do we like them?

Do we like Joe Biden?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent record that backed LGBTQ+ rights, with one contested position on Israel and Gaza that split his own side.

Joe Biden is a Scranton-born politician who spent decades in the US Senate for Delaware before becoming vice president and then the 46th president. He is the oldest person ever elected to the job, and he left office in January 2025. He's the sort of figure you've formed a view on already, so the useful bit is the record under the headlines.

On his own claims, the fact-checkers have been mixed. PolitiFact rated his claim that he was a staunch liberal in the Senate as false, after finding his average National Journal liberalism score over two decades was 76 per cent. That puts him as a mainstream Democrat rather than a firebrand. PolitiFact has also checked more than 260 of his statements since 2007, which is a lot of scrutiny for anyone.

On the harm test, the LGBTQ+ side of the ledger is the strong part. Ahead of taking office he said his top legislative priority for LGBTQ+ people was the Equality Act, and he promised swift moves including lifting the ban on transgender military service. The Equality Act stalled in the Senate, so a promise isn't a law, but the direction was clear. Critics raised religious freedom concerns about the bill, which is a fair argument to have rather than a mark against him.

Where it gets contested is Gaza. In 2021 a human rights group criticised a $735 million precision-weapons sale to Israel pushed through during the fighting. In early 2024 he said Israel's military conduct in Gaza had gone too far, and he threatened to hold back some arms, which drew pushback from both sides. Where you land depends on whether you read his support as a steady ally doing what he could, or as backing a war that cost civilian lives.

Honest gap: our tools couldn't open most of the recent coverage this session, so we couldn't confirm what has happened lately. There was talk of a Republican probe into how his team used the autopen and some midterm-season speeches, but we can't source any of it here. Nothing new on him is nailed down to a standard we'd put our name to.

The good stuff is mainly the policy direction: moves to protect LGBTQ+ people, a Senate and White House career built on the mainstream of his party, and a record that LGBTQ+ advocates largely welcomed. That's real, but we didn't find a body of personal good deeds to point to beyond that. We'd rather say the record is thin than pad it.