In effect, he accepted that his Build Back Better plan, which he had hoped would be the capstone of his legislative agenda, would not pass in its current form. “Connect with people, let them take the measure of my sincerity.”īiden bowed to the inevitable on his legislative agenda - sort of. “I don’t get a chance to look people in the eye, to go out and do the things I’ve always been able to do,” he said at one point. Relatedly, Biden also promised to hit the road more, talking wistfully about how he has not been able do more of the old-school politicking he relishes because of the pandemic. “I honestly don’t know what they’re for.”Īn old political dictum holds that elections are either a referendum on the incumbent or a choice between two options.īiden is doing what he can to make the 2022 midterms a choice - surely seeing this approach as his party’s most realistic chance to cling onto its razor-thin congressional majorities. “What would be the Republican platform right now?,” he asked rhetorically, citing issues including taxation, the cost of prescription drugs and human rights. He claimed several times that Republicans were happy to position themselves against him but unwilling to state in plain terms what they favor. But he clearly wants to put a contrast between his party and the GOP in the front of voters’ minds He is not - yet - going full, scorched-earth negative.

Next to the Russia gaffe, the most politically significant aspect of the briefing was Biden’s shift to a midterm election strategy. Some commentators complained the event grew dull because of its length.īut that critique is not likely to matter much with the general public, relatively few of whom are likely to have watched the presser in its entirety. In the later stages of the event, for example, Biden suggested he might not consider the midterm elections legitimate under certain circumstances- but the wording of his answer was rather unclear. They are traits that have marked his entire political career. In fact, that issue was explicitly - and somewhat pompously - brought up at the news conference by a reporter for Newsmax, and Biden swatted it aside.īut the length of the news conference also played to two Biden-related weaknesses - an eagerness to talk at considerable length and a propensity for inexact language. On one hand, the briefing’s duration was proof of Biden’s stamina and mental acuity - a retort to conservative critics who suggest that, at 79, he is not up to the job. There were pluses and minuses to the marathon approach. “How many more hours am I doing this? I’m happy to stick around,” he said. In terms of domestic politics, the remark will also feed into the conservative tendency to portray Democrats as puny on the world stage.īiden spent almost two hours in the East Room, and even joked about the longevity of the event in its closing stages. The entire thrust of Washington’s approach in its negotiations with the Kremlin has been to show seriousness this time around.īut Biden put a hole in his own strategy on Wednesday, for no obvious reason.

He annexed Crimea in 2014 and, for all its noble-sounding words of protest, the international community has not been able to reverse the move.

They core of the problem is that Biden’s remarks sounded weak and timid - liabilities that Putin will try to maximally exploit. White House aides immediately scrambled to try to clear up the confusion.

Offered a second bite at the cherry, Biden missed yet again, this time implying that a limited Russian action would make it difficult for him to drive a unified response from NATO. The comment lit up social media, and a second reporter asked Biden about it later in the news conference. So it proved again on Wednesday.Ī predictable question on a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine produced an odd and damaging response.īiden suggested that a “minor incursion” by the Kremlin’s forces might not receive much aggressive pushback from the United States. His legislative agenda has stalled, and he faces challenges ranging from inflation to Russian aggression.īut the president, speaking amid the grandeur of the East Room of the White House, had a chance to reset the agenda with the midterm elections just 10 months away.īiden’s loquaciousness has a history of getting him in trouble. The event came with the president’s poll ratings at a low ebb and as he is enduring one of his most difficult stretches to date. President Biden held a rare formal news conference Wednesday, one day before the first anniversary of his inauguration.

Biden press conference today