WASHINGTON (AP) – Inside the White House, President Joe Biden chaired a focused launch of his administration, using his early days in office to drastically break away from his predecessor, while signing executive orders that meant a demonstration of action to address historic challenges he inherited.
But outside the gates of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there are signs everywhere that these crises are as deep and intractable as ever. Coronavirus pandemic outbreaks, the economy fluctuating and Republicans in Congress signaled objections to many of Biden’s plans.
Biden is trying to make a leap in his first 100 days in office with action and symbolism to reassure an audience divided and tired that help is at hand. He also knows that what a president can do alone is limited, so he is asking Congress to act while he is being frank with Americans that dark days are ahead.
“The crisis is not getting better. It is deepening, ”said Biden on Friday of the impact of the pandemic. “A lot of America is suffering. The virus is increasing. Families are starving. People are at risk of being evicted again. Job losses are increasing. We need to act. “
“The end result is this: we are in a national emergency. We need to act as if we are in a national emergency, ”he said.
Biden’s first moments as president were aimed at consolidating American democracy itself.
He took the oath just before noon on Wednesday in front of a Capitol that still bears scars from the uprising that took place just two weeks earlier and aimed to prevent Biden’s rise to power. The violence underscored the fragile nature of the peaceful transfer of power and led to Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment.
Biden resisted calls to move the opening to a safer indoor environment. He intended to preserve the usual opening traps as a sign that normalcy could be achieved, although there were signs everywhere that things were far from normal: a military presence that looked like a war zone, guests on the dais wearing masks , a National Mall filled with 200,000 American flags representing the American people who were asked to stay away because of the pandemic.
Biden was open and direct about the confluence of crises that the nation faces. More than 410,000 Americans lost their lives in the pandemic, millions are unemployed and the tremors of a racially-fair summer reckoning are still felt.
“You can hear this collective sigh of relief because Trump is gone, but we don’t have time for a sigh of relief because of the cascading crises,” said Eddie Glaude Jr., head of the department of African American studies at Princeton University. “We don’t want to assume that Biden’s election solves everything. The scale of the problems is immense and the question for us is whether we respond on a scale. “
The changes at the White House were rapid.
After Trump’s departure, his final team left and a thorough cleanup began. The White House was the site of several outbreaks of COVID-19 and, in a physical manifestation of a new approach to the virus, plastic protectors were placed on tables and dozens of new employees were instructed to work from home.
New photos were hung on the walls of the West Wing and the Oval Office received a quick makeover. A painting by Andrew Jackson and the Diet Coke button on the table are gone; Images of Robert Kennedy and Cesar Chavez entered. But the most important symbol, the clearest break with the previous administration, came from the president himself.
When Biden sat at the Resolute Desk to sign his first batch of executive orders on Wednesday, he was wearing a mask. Trump resisted wearing one, putting one on only occasionally, and instead making mask use a polarizing political issue
Biden urged all Americans to wear masks for the next 100 days and used his platform to model the same behavior, one of several ways he tried to change the tone of the presidency in his early days.
The daily press briefings returned, without the accusations of “false news” that marked only sporadic briefings in the Trump era. Biden took a virtual oath to hundreds of White House officials, telling them to treat each other with respect or be dismissed, a marked departure from Trump West Wing, which is disputed and driven by rivalry. The calls to the leaders of Canada and Mexico were made without drama.
The executive actions that Biden signed during the week were a mix of concrete and symbolic actions designed to undo the heart of Trump’s legacy. Biden halted the construction of the border wall, joined the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement and reinforced the means of producing vaccines.
But the power of executive actions pales in comparison to the $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package he requested from Congress. Biden did not rule out asking the Senate majority leader, Charles Schumer, DN.Y., to push him through tactics that require only Democratic support. But the president, who spent decades in the Senate, hoped to convince Republicans to support the measure.
“Leaning on executive action makes sense at first, you can get things going and show momentum immediately, without waiting for Congress,” said Robert Gibbs, former press secretary to President Barack Obama. “But it will take a while. As it was for us in 2009, the change does not happen overnight. “
“Everything he inherited tends to get worse before we see improvements,” said Gibbs. “One thing you learn on January 20 is that, suddenly, you have everything.”
Only two cabinet nominees were confirmed by the end of the week, much to the White House’s frustration. But with the announcement on Friday night that Trump’s impeachment trial will not begin until the week of February 8, Biden’s advisers were optimistic that the Senate would confirm more before that.
The trial appears to be an undesirable distraction for Biden’s team. But while Trump follows the White House, Biden’s aides noted that the former president draws much less attention now that his Twitter account is gone. They expressed confidence that the Senate can balance the impeachment procedures with the Office’s confirmations and consideration of the COVID-19 relief bill.
Biden made it clear that leading the country through the pandemic will be his main task and some Republicans believe Trump’s implosion could create an opening to work on a humanitarian aid deal.
“There is a very narrow permit structure for Republicans in Congress who want to overcome the Trump era and establish their own political identities,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who was a senior advisor in Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Romney is now a Utah senator.
“There is an old saying: ‘Make the main thing the main thing.’ And the Biden White House knows that this is the main thing, ”said Madden. “If they can improve the response to the pandemic in the next 100 days, then they can move on to other priorities, they will have the capital for legislative struggles. But they need to get it right. “
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