JiveBlog

Explore More

President Biden’s successful 2020 campaign was based on the theme of unity. As recently as last week, the commander-in-chief was telling audiences he had sought the nation’s highest office to “unify the country.”

Biden also vowed to take responsibility as president, promising in an August2020 Twitter post he would not resort to “blaming others.”

However, as his term nears the 18-month mark, Biden’s message has shifted. He’s repeatedly ripped Republicans over the failure of the Democrat-led House and Senate to pass strict gun control legislation, federal abortion protections and election reform; labeled former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement the “most extreme” in recent US history; and accused oil companies of not doing enough to fight soaring gas prices. 

As the president has lashed out, his approval ratings have dropped — hitting an average of 37.7% as of Tuesday. As a result, both Democrats and Republicans have pushed for the White House to change its tactics — but want Biden to move in opposite directions. 

Bipartisan outreach

“Almost nine out of 10 of our fellow citizens think he’s on the wrong track, so that’s a little bigger than just the unity issue,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told The Post. “It’s just because everything they’ve done has been terrible.” 

“Joe Biden … he said he would unify the country, that he would take responsibility — but when things start going bad, you know, he blames Trump, then he blames Russia for the $5 gas, now he’s just blaming Republicans,” continued Jordan, predicting that one day Biden will “just start blaming the country [and] start blaming the American people he’s supposed to be serving.” 

Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, added that signs had been apparent from the start of the Biden administration that working across the aisle would be nearly impossible.

“Even if you wanted to do smart policy, the left that controls his party won’t,” Jordan said. 

“I don’t think there’s even a chance he could do the right thing and work across the aisle in any way trying to unify the country,” he added. 

Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) reiterated that concern, telling The Post that the Democratic Party has been “hijacked by the extreme far left.” 

“They will stop at nothing to fully transform our country into a socialist state, destroying our institutions to do it, ending the Senate filibuster to expand the Supreme Court, add DC as a state and a whole host of other left-wing initiatives that are totally out of touch with what Americans really want,” Barr said. “It’s no wonder that Joe Biden’s poll numbers are sinking by the day.”

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) told The Post that Biden’s actions as president appear to be part of a pattern of moderate-leaning candidates getting elected and coming under the spell of a combative base.

“When [Biden] was a senator for many years, he was very bipartisan, and that’s one of the reasons I supported him [for president], because he was more of a moderate,” Cuellar said. “You get here to DC, and all of sudden you get forces on the left, right — and not only on the Republican side, we see that on the Democratic side.”

“By nature, they don’t want to negotiate or they don’t want to do anything bipartisan,” Cuellar said of progressive Democrats, adding that it “makes it very hard for President Biden.” 

With the midterm elections less than four months away, the Texas Democrat said there is really only “one more shot” to pass any more bipartisan legislation. 

“I would say that window, it’s still open, but that window is closing fast,” he said.

Even if Biden tries to appeal more to Republicans, the olive branch wouldn’t be entirely welcome.

Gunner Ramer, the political director of the Republican Accountability Project, told The Post that there is “absolutely no incentive structure” for GOP lawmakers to work across the aisle “because their voters don’t want that.”

Gregg Keller, a Republican strategist based in Missouri, also indicated further bipartisan initiatives were “unlikely,” calling it “a matter of political strategy.”

“Republicans are set to have a historic election cycle,” he said. “Joe Biden may not be the most unpopular president in the history of the presidency, but he’s pretty close at this point.

“Republicans are primed to dominate congressional and Senate races, gubernatorial races and the like. And I think that just from the pure vantage point of political strategy would be extremely foolish to give him anything.”

The blame game

Jordan said he wasn’t surprised by the increasing number of attacks against Republicans from the White House, calling it “the nature of the left today.” 

On Sunday, the president was blasted by GOP lawmakers over a tweet blaming the party for “doing nothing but obstructing our efforts to crack down on gas-price gouging, lower food prices, lower healthcare costs.” 

Cuellar indicated that such language plays to a large portion of the left-wing progressive base. However, for him and others in the party, such language is “not what we want to hear.” 

“We want to see more ‘come to middle’ … and not just messaging to motivate the base,” he told The Post. 

Cuellar, who has not shied away from criticizing Biden over issues like immigration, said the president “has to take responsibility.” 

“I remember the old saying by a former president [Harry S. Truman], ‘The buck stops here.’ And I think the president will have to take the good and the bad,” he said. 

Strategists have warned that it could be difficult for Biden to counter the recent narrative around his presidency ahead of the midterms, as Democrats and moderates distance themselves from the president.

“Biden is not getting in this year, and in this election, he will not get any voters who are centrist to right of center,” said Keller, who called the administration’s policies “extremely polarizing.”

The GOP strategist told The Post he believes the administration has “totally given up on any talk of bipartisanship,” suggesting it would “further inflame his liberal base.”

“I expect him to go full banshee, liberal crazy,” Keller added.

The progressive push

Two of Biden’s biggest legislative accomplishments, on infrastructure and gun control, have had at least some bipartisan support. But Democrats and progressives are now saying the time for fostering unity is over.

Norman Solomon, national director of the left-wing group RootsAction — which launched an effort this week opposing Biden’s renomination in 2024 — told The Post his organization believes Biden has “gone too out of his way to pander to Republicans.” 

“In many ways, he hasn’t used his power to put forward a progressive agenda. For instance, executive order powers he has but he hasn’t utilized because he’s too afraid of Republicans getting mad at him and furious,” Solomon said. 

“But they’re not gonna like him no matter what, so we think it’s a foolish effort to reach across the aisle if he’s just gonna have his arm hacked off anyway. So why does he reach across the aisle?” 

Democratic strategist Camille Rivera agreed, saying: “We are not taking the right approach, we’re not being out there, we’re not organizing with people, we’re not talking to folks. We’re using the same bipartisan strategy of engagement that’s just not working. And when there’s something that’s not working … we need to move forward.” 

Going into the midterms, Rivera emphasized, Democrats need to show Republicans “we are not playing around, that we will fight for our country, fight for our freedom, for all to control our own bodies. 

“When [Biden’s] out there, he should be campaigning hard and he should be talking to people and he should be delivering,” she told The Post. “And every time Republicans say ‘No,’ shut them down.” 

Ramer, of the Republican Accountability Project, agreed, saying Biden’s recent hits at Republicans are only surprising because he “hasn’t been doing it enough.”

“Biden should absolutely be prosecuting a case against Republicans on these and other issues where MAGA Republicans have taken more extreme positions than most Americans — and even their own voters,” he said.

The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3N7j3Bmampfoa64ucCknKurXZiurbiMn6arZZKesaa6jKyrq5mkmrS6ecKhmKeflWKutHnPqKOlq12otbDDjKmpnrJdnrtusMirnGarpKeuqsDSaA%3D%3D