New York Times: ‘Many Democratic lawmakers’ are concerned by Biden’s leadership, feel U.S. is ‘falling apart’
A New York Times report revealed Saturday that many Democratic Party officials have little faith that President Biden can keep his party afloat amid mounting crises. The piece also implied that the Jan. 6 Committee is Biden’s last chance before the midterm elections to persuade swing voters who are more fixated on inflation.
According to reporters Epstein and Medina, “many Democratic lawmakers and party officials are venting their frustrations with President Biden’s struggle to advance the bulk of his agenda, doubting his ability to rescue the party from a predicted midterm trouncing and increasingly viewing him as an anchor that should be cut loose in 2024.”
Biden has been polling poorly, and there are reports that he and his White House staff are frustrated with the obstacles in front of him, including increasingly negative media coverage.
The report cited “nearly 50 Democratic officials” and “disappointed voters” who are “alarmed about Republicans’ rising strength and extraordinarily pessimistic about an immediate path forward” under the Biden administration.
There is “low enthusiasm” from Biden’s base and worry from party officials about the president’s “leadership, his age and his capability to take the fight to former President Donald J. Trump a second time,” the Times wrote. It quoted Steve Simeonidis, a Democratic National Committee member from Florida, who said, “To say our country was on the right track would flagrantly depart from reality,” and urged him to announce he wouldn’t run again shortly after the midterms.
The piece also depicted the Jan. 6 Committee hearing as “perhaps the last, best chance before the midterms to break through with persuadable swing voters who have been more focused on inflation and gas prices.” Otherwise, all that Biden has – after “repeated failures of his administration to pass big-ticket legislation on signature Democratic issues” and “halting efforts to use the bully pulpit of the White House to move public opinion” – is “sagging approval ratings and a party that, as much as anything, seems to feel sorry for him.”
Democrats have been “struggling to explain away a series of calamities for the party” including, “inflation rates unseen in four decades, surging gas prices, a lingering pandemic, a spate of mass shootings, a Supreme Court poised to end the federal right to an abortion.”
The report alleged that “nearly all the Democrats interviewed” have a “deep concern about his political viability,” and stated they’re uncomfortable with his gaffes. “They have watched as Biden has repeatedly rattled global diplomats with unexpected remarks that were later walked back by his White House staff, and as he has sat for fewer interviews than any of his recent predecessors.”
Obama chief strategist David Axelrod told the paper that “Biden doesn’t get the credit he deserves” for some of his successes, including navigating the pandemic, uniting NATO against Russia, “and restoring decency and decorum to the White House.” However, he admitted, “the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue.”
Polling shows Biden is at a low point with Democratic voters, with one Associated Press poll showing him at just 73 percent approval with them. Epstein and Medina rounded out the report with quotes from various party members expressing doubt about Biden’s future.
Former DNC chair Howard Dean implied Biden hasn’t achieved enough of what he has promised. “We need to have specific examples of how we’re dealing with things; it can’t just be pie-in-the-sky and kumbaya,” he said. The report concluded with a quote from DNC member Sheila Huggins, a lawyer from North Carolina: “Democrats need fresh, bold leadership for the 2024 presidential race. That can’t be Biden.”
