INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Presidents face challenges while in office, but Joe Biden will have something in common with Independence native Harry Truman in having to confront a global crisis as soon as he enters the White House.
The biggest challenge for Biden will be COVID-19. For Truman, it was World War II.
Kurt Graham serves as director of the Truman Presidential Library and Museum. He said Truman had to confront the war head-on and Biden will have to confront coronavirus the same way.
“If he’s looking at Truman for example, he’ll hit the ground running and will have all kinds of plans in place so that when the disaster has passed, the real work of governing can begin," Graham said.
In regards to governing, both Truman and Biden have years of political experience in Washington D.C. that could be beneficial during a crisis.
“Mr. Biden has spent a long career in the Senate. He has friends on both sides of the aisle. Much the way Harry Truman did. You know Truman, he did not look at the opposite party as his enemy. He did not look at them as anything other than people with whom he had a disagreement and he tried to come to a consensus," Graham said.
Graham added Biden should look to Truman on how to handle the next big issues impacting the country after a crisis is over.
"We often forget that with Harry Truman, when the war was over, he still had seven-and-a-half years to go of being president, and when you think of the great things Harry Truman accomplished, ending World War II is just one in a long list of things that Harry Truman was able to do," Graham said.
The Truman Library and Museum is closed to the public because of COVID-19. However, Graham said the goal is to open in late spring at the earliest.
