President Biden Year One Takeaways: Grand Ambitions, Humbling Defeats

At 78, he's the oldest person to assume the presidency.

Joe Biden's long arc in public life has always had one final ambition: to sit behind the Resolute Desk of the Oval Office.

He achieved it — albeit, at 78, as the oldest person to assume the presidency. After the turbulence and chaos of his predecessor, Donald Trump, President Biden was seen by voters as one who could restore a sense of normalcy and a reassuring tone to the White House.

But President Biden also found out, as all his predecessors have, that events beyond his control would shape his time in office and the public's assessment of him.