| President Joe Biden is giving his farewell address tonight. It’s a final opportunity for Biden to burnish his legacy while he still has the bully pulpit of the presidency at his disposal. It’s a legacy that became a lot more complicated over the past year as he withdrew from his reelection campaign and still saw his party lose to President-elect Donald Trump. In a letter released this morning ahead of his speech, Biden recounted how he inherited a country in the midst of a deadly pandemic and economic crisis and how he ran for president because he “believed that the soul of America was at stake” — and he said he still does. “It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years,” Biden wrote. “Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States.” The letter is accompanied by a 26,000-word list of his administration’s accomplishments, including incentivizing clean energy, expanding and strengthening NATO and conserving coasts from offshore drilling (policies Trump has criticized). Tonight’s speech also comes as some major questions continue to swirl around his administration in its final days, making for — potentially — a more unique finale to a president’s lame-duck period. Here’s a look at those questions: Who will he pardon? The White House has promised that Biden will grant clemency to more individuals before he leaves office — possibly to people who have been threatened by Trump, such as members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Biden has already pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, and commuted the sentences of almost every prisoner on federal death row, among other acts of clemency in recent weeks. As we reported yesterday, those involved in conversations with the White House to advocate for mass clemency actions by the president have been particularly encouraged by their recent discussions, especially about clemency for domestic abuse survivors and nonviolent offenders. One question is whether the potential recipients of preemptive pardons are even interested in them. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-California), who chairs the House Democratic Caucus and served on the Jan. 6 committee, said Tuesday he has “not sought a pardon” and has “not talked to anyone in the White House related to a pardon.” “I stand by the work that we did” on the committee, Aguilar told reporters at the Capitol. “We didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t think a pardon is necessary.” Will there be a ceasefire deal? The Biden administration has been holding out hope that it could still broker a deal to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza war. “We are close to a deal, and it can get done this week,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday, adding that he is “not making a promise or prediction, but it is there for the taking.” One complicating factor is Trump, who has been touting his own efforts to land a deal before he takes office Monday — and threatening “all hell will break loose” if Hamas does not return the hostages by then. Trump has dispatched to Israel his incoming special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who met Saturday with the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “I understand … there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week,” Trump said Monday night in a Newsmax interview, without providing more detail. How much IRA funding will make it out the door? One of Trump’s major campaign promises was to repeal what he derided as Biden’s “Green New Deal,” referring to the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s sprawling bipartisan legislation to provide hundreds of billions of dollars to address climate change and lower prescription drug costs. Before Biden leaves, clean energy advocates are hoping his administration will speedily obligate, or set aside, as much of the funds as they can. Money that is unspent or not set aside could be on Trump’s chopping block. Energy policy strategist Sam Ricketts told us that a recent Environmental Protection Agency report detailed how much progress the administration has made on that front, pointing to how the agency awarded $38.4 billion — or 93 percent — of grant funding to reduce pollution and organize clean energy projects. On the state level, governments are signing up for home energy rebate programs before the clock runs out. “Jan. 20 is really in the blink of an eye,” Ricketts said. “We know they’re running through the tape to get as much done as possible.” In what state will Biden leave international relations? Biden, who has long prided himself on his foreign policy experience, expressed optimism about the state of the country’s international relations in a foreign policy speech Monday. Biden especially emphasized his support for Ukraine in the war against Russia after the administration sent the final tranche of military aid last week and issued parting sanctions on Russian oil companies and tankers. His final acts will set the stage for Trump, who has pledged to end the war in Ukraine and bring stability to a war-torn Middle East. But there’s also the possibility that some of his final actions on the world stage could be reversed in the next administration. For instance, the White House announced Tuesday that Biden is lifting the state sponsor of terrorism designation for Cuba, a move that Trump’s pick for secretary of state Marco Rubio is expected to vehemently object to, our colleagues Karen DeYoung and Mary Beth Sheridan report. What about that South Carolina trip? The White House announced Tuesday that on Sunday, Biden’s final full day in office, the president will travel to Charleston, South Carolina. There were no further details. Biden has long had a fondness for South Carolina, the state that launched his comeback in the 2020 Democratic primary. One of his closest congressional allies is the dean of the state’s delegation, Rep. James E. Clyburn (D). Biden rarely misses an opportunity to remind people of the state’s importance to him. “Truth is, I wouldn’t be here today were it not for the support of the great people of South Carolina,” Biden said in September while honoring the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team at the White House. | 
Meryl Kornfield and 
