The official Democratic Party account on X posted an Easter message Saturday featuring former President Barack Obama, and pointedly left out former President Joe Biden. The caption read, “Better times at the White House,” alongside an image of Obama standing beside a person in an Easter Bunny costume with the Washington Monument rising behind them.
The omission did not go unnoticed. Social media users, commentators, and even the Republican Party’s official account piled on, reading the post as a deliberate snub of the man who held the presidency just months ago. Fox News Digital reported that the DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The backlash cuts to a question the Democratic Party has never cleanly answered: What, exactly, was the Biden presidency to them? A placeholder? An embarrassment to be airbrushed away? Or just an inconvenient chapter between the Obama years and whatever comes next?
Christian influencer Renatta Oxendine replied directly to the post with a question millions of Americans likely shared.
“Why are y’all skipping over Biden?”
Fox News Digital columnist David Marcus was less diplomatic, calling the post a “brutal smack down of Joe Biden.” Conservative podcaster Stephen L. Miller offered a dry observation in response to a related controversy: “They skipped someone.”
The Republican Party’s official account seized the moment, resurfacing an older post from California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office that once praised Biden with the words, “Happy birthday, President @JoeBiden! We miss having a president who has physical stamina, and a functioning brain.” The GOP account added its own commentary: “We know you ‘can’t read’ but remember posting this?”
That Newsom press office post is worth pausing on. At one point, Newsom’s team was happy to tout Biden as a man of vigor and intellect. That same press office later posted a separate message encouraging users to repost “if you miss having a President with a functioning brain”, but this time the image was of Obama, not Biden.
This is not a one-off slip. The Newsom press office incident and the Democratic Party’s Easter post form a pattern. When Democrats reach for nostalgia, they reach past Biden every time. Obama gets the glamour shots. Biden gets silence, or, at best, a belated consolation post about his “empathy,” which is exactly what the Newsom press office offered after its own backlash.
“Empathy” is a telling word choice. Not leadership. Not accomplishment. Not strength. Empathy, the softest, most noncommittal compliment available. It is the political equivalent of telling someone they have a nice personality.
The broader context makes the snub sharper. As recently as October 16, 2024, Biden, Obama, and former President Bill Clinton appeared together at a memorial service for Ethel Kennedy at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. The party was content to stand Biden alongside Obama when the cameras required it. But when the party’s social media team had a free hand on Easter weekend, Biden vanished.
The Democratic Party’s treatment of Biden raises questions about institutional accountability that stretch well beyond social media posts. Recent revelations about secret subpoenas targeting Trump allies during the Biden era have already put the former president’s Justice Department under a harsh spotlight.
And the broader pattern of concealment and evasion in Washington is not limited to one party or one branch. Congressional investigators have been pressing for transparency on DOJ handling of high-profile cases that span multiple administrations.
Social media users offered varying interpretations of the post’s intent and timing. Some saw it as a simple Easter greeting. Others read it as a deliberate editorial choice, a party telling the world which president it actually wants to remember.
The second reading is harder to dismiss. Political parties do not run official accounts by accident. Every image is chosen. Every caption is approved. When the Democratic Party posts “Better times at the White House” and attaches a photo of Obama, not Biden, not Clinton, not any other Democrat, the message is unmistakable. The “better times” were the Obama times. The Biden years were something else.
That message lands with particular force given the ongoing partisan clashes in Washington over everything from intelligence oversight to national security policy under the current administration. Democrats are eager to draw contrasts with President Trump. But they cannot even bring themselves to celebrate their own most recent president.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, meanwhile, has been touting President Trump’s authenticity and contrasting her experience with the apparent difficulties her predecessor, Karine Jean-Pierre, faced under Biden. The comparison is not subtle, and the Democratic Party’s own Easter post only sharpened it.
Fox News Digital reached out to the DNC for a response. None came. That silence speaks as loudly as the post itself. A party that felt confident about Biden’s legacy would have defended it, or at least included him in a holiday greeting.
Instead, the Democrats chose Obama. Again. They chose the man who, by multiple accounts, urged Biden not to run as far back as 2016. They chose the president whose team has consistently been elevated while Biden’s record is quietly shelved.
Biden served four years. He signed legislation. He made appointments. He set policy. Whether you agreed with any of it or not, the man held the office. His own party’s refusal to acknowledge that fact, on Easter, of all days, tells you everything about how the Democratic establishment actually views the Biden presidency.
They don’t view it at all. They look right past it.
When your own party treats you like a rough draft between two better chapters, the history books won’t be any kinder.
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