WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden government takes enormous pride in methodically revealing its agenda, particularly the $ 1.9 trillion pandemic relief measure the president hopes to trumpet in the coming weeks. But a growing list of unforeseen challenges is beginning to scramble the White House’s plans.
In less than a week, two mass shootings overshadowed President Joe Biden’s “Help is Here” tour, in which he planned to announce the ways his government is helping Americans recover from the pandemic. The White House has also struggled to respond to the growth of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. border with Mexico or to prevent a national effort by Republican legislatures to tighten electoral laws.
Biden’s meticulous approach to the presidency is intended to serve as a radical departure from the chaos of his predecessor, Donald Trump. But the rapid developments in the past week are a reminder that even the most disciplined management cannot control much.
“Each president and his team makes plans, but every day plans are destroyed by reality,” said Ari Fleischer, who was George W. Bush’s press secretary when that government’s priorities were suddenly inundated by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 2001. “External events intervene and force you to play defense, improvise or change your plans almost every day. If you don’t know how to juggle, you don’t belong to the White House. ”
Juggling is intensifying at a particularly critical time for Biden. The most valuable asset of presidents is their time, especially in the first months of their term, when concerns about future elections are more distant. There were signs on Tuesday that the patience of Biden’s diverse coalition may be wearing thin.
Two Democratic senators, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, condemned the lack of diversity in Biden’s office. The scrutiny of Biden’s aides intensified after last week’s shooting in Atlanta, which killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent. The violence occurred during a wave of attacks against Asian Americans last year.
Duckworth said she raised her concerns about the White House on Tuesday and she and Hirono threatened to withhold their votes on the nominations until the government addressed the issue. In an equally divided Senate, such a move can have significant ramifications.
However, the two senators dropped their blockade of nominees on Tuesday after securing the Biden government’s assurances that more would be done. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House will add a senior contact from the Asian-American Pacific Islands “who will ensure that the voice of the community is better represented and heard”.
Biden may soon face another fight if he fulfills his commitment to tighten arms regulations. After Monday’s shooting at a Boulder, Colorado supermarket that killed 10 people, Biden asked Congress to close loopholes in the background check system and ban high-capacity assault weapons and magazines.
Biden pointed to the closure of what is known as the Charleston breach – a provision of federal law that gives the arms dealer the decision to proceed with the sale if the FBI does not determine within three business days whether a buyer is eligible to buy a gun.
“This is one of the best tools we have now to prevent armed violence,” said Biden.
Biden, as a candidate, promised quick action on gun control, including some steps on his first day in office. But the polarizing issue was discreetly put aside by the focus on the virus effort and the imperative to prioritize its agenda with narrow Democratic majorities in Congress and the current legislative obstruction.
During the general election, Biden managed to smother many of the intra-party divisions that so often lacerated Democrats, bringing them together around a central goal: defeating Trump.
After his election, his team adopted the same principle to unite the Democratic factions, organizing themselves again around a common motivation: to pass the huge $ 1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. There should be no debate about priorities, Biden’s advisers made it clear to Democrats. The relief of the pandemic, which emphasizes vaccines and unemployment benefits, had to come first in a time of historic crises.
Publicly, lawmakers and Democratic groups signed, even when backstage disputes started over what was to come next. Biden’s aides acknowledged that the fight for the sequel could become fierce, with different groups pushing for arms control, immigration, voting rights and climate change to become the centerpiece of the White House’s next effort.
After the shootings, and a growing challenge on the southern border, West Wing advisers in the past few days have held a series of meetings and virtual calls to outline strategies on how to proceed on urgent matters, according to two unauthorized White House advisers to discuss discussions. private. Biden asked aides to change gun control, aides said.
West Wing advisers recognize in particular that they were taken aback by the increase in migrants at the border and the furor over the conditions of their detention. After just silent opposition to a pandemic relief bill that neither voted for, Republican lawmakers took advantage of the situation on the border.
This is making Democrats nervous. Some Democratic lawmakers have called for more transparency at the border, while fearing that such disclosure would allow Republicans to block the White House’s momentum.
Just before news of the Colorado shooting, White House advisers leaked a preliminary word about their next priority, a potentially $ 3 billion package of money for the development of roads, hospitals, schools and green energy systems. But for this program, like other legislative priorities, the White House faces difficult prospects for any Republican support and would be forced to proceed with a party line vote.
This would require keeping all Democrats in line and implementing procedural maneuvers to pass legislation without Republican votes.
Biden, a Senate institutionalist, has long been opposed to modifying the obstruction, although advisers said he would prioritize his agenda over preserving the legislative instrument, if any.
But the move would face strong opposition from minority Republicans and could also face headwinds among moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, suggesting more political struggles ahead.
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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.