WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden already faces the daunting task of managing a newly announced $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill through a Congress narrowly divided as the pandemic and its economic consequences grow.
Now Biden will have to do this with President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, potentially starting as early as his first day in office.
The confluence of events amounts to one of the most politically and logistically complicated openings for a new administration in modern history, requiring Biden to try to move the country into a post-Trump era, even as senators debate Trump’s most divisive acts.
“It will be an incredible challenge,” said former Arkansas senator Mark Pryor, a Democrat. “There is a lot of bandwidth in Congress.”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who will have a significant role to play in driving Biden’s agenda to the Senate as chairman of the Budget Committee, stressed how much is in the hands of Democrats during Biden’s early months in office.
“We don’t have time to spend an enormous amount of time on impeachment, and then we go to Biden’s nominees and then we have to deal with the legislation,” said the independent senator. “We will have to move simultaneously in several areas.”
Biden has so far largely stayed out of public deliberations on Trump’s impeachment for inciting a riot. After the House vote, Biden was energetic in denouncing the violent attack on the Capitol that precipitated the impeachment charge, but also said he would work as president to ensure that Americans “stay together as a nation” – and asked the Senate to “find a way to deal with its constitutional responsibilities in impeachment while also working on other urgent matters in this nation. ”
His straightforward approach to the subject is in line with his stance throughout the campaign and its transition, even as Trump’s growing controversies overwhelm the news cycle.
Biden was slow to endorse Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, only expressing support for the change weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the formal effort. Decades earlier, when Richard Nixon was impeached, Biden warned his Senate colleagues to consider the weight of the moment and give Nixon a fair trial.
Capitol Democrats say they largely want to see Biden continue his balanced approach and focus on his agenda, rather than impeachment, once he takes office.
“President-elect Biden has a great job. So let it do its job – and let the Senate do its job, ”said California deputy Barbara Lee, a Democrat.
But once the process begins, it will certainly be more difficult for Biden to avoid it altogether, with judgment dominating the news cycle and forcing his former opponent back into the spotlight, even when Biden tries to stay focused on the coronavirus pandemic.
And there is a possibility that they may further exacerbate the already tense atmosphere on Capitol Hill, politicizing Biden’s agenda and making it more difficult for him to win the support of unsuccessful Republican senators.
“Trump’s most fervent supporters will have the opportunity to attack Democrats, not for their programs and not for their ideas, but as the evil caricature that came to portray them,” said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Presidential History Center at Southern Methodist University. “People who could be voted on part of Biden’s legislative agenda will be much more hesitant to agree with Democratic plans while Democrats are being openly maligned.”
Biden was known as a negotiator in the Senate and has a long relationship with many Republican senators after his 36-year career there. He also maintained contact with the leadership of both parties during the transition. But, as Virginia senator Mark Warner points out, there is a risk that the impeachment will poison Biden’s well with senators who don’t know him well.
“At least half the Republican caucus never served with Joe Biden,” said Warner, a Democrat. “Your ability to navigate with these new members, if their first impression is motivated by what may end up being decided by party lines, will make your job more difficult.”
For now, Biden remains focused on his agenda.
On Thursday, in announcing his COVID-19 aid package, he emphasized that he hopes to work with lawmakers from both parties and expressed optimism that, despite the $ 1.9 trillion price tag, “we are ready to do this” .
“I know that what I just described is not cheap, but we just can’t help doing what I’m proposing,” said Biden.
And Democrats on Capitol Hill are also moving forward, refusing to accept the prospect that impeachment will deter them from their legislative goals.
“What the Senate will have to do is show the world that it can walk and chew gum at the same time,” said Sanders.