The frustration in the Democratic party is growing increasingly by what they say is a flat-footed White House that is slow to catch up on solving a seemingly never-ending cascade of problems in the face of an unrelenting news cycle.
According to several key Democrat leaders, the latest example of Biden’s ineptness is how he failed to get ahead of the story of the recent baby formula shortage, allowing Republicans to set the narrative as yet another failure for the White House. But Biden’s lag on other issues at the top of voters’ minds was also highlighted by them, such as inflation and gas prices.
In April, when the White House was caught off guard when a federal judge in Florida lifted the mask mandate on airlines, the Democrats were also frustrated, and again in May when a leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was made public, even though both were events that surprised Washington more broadly, not just the White House.
Democratic strategist Christy Setzer reported that the White House has shown some naivete in recent months in trying to control the message. “It may come down to not understanding what they’re up against, both the media environment and today’s GOP. Biden did speak out on guns, on baby formula, on inflation, but the traditional tactics aren’t breaking through, and it doesn’t seem as though they’re taking in that information, re-trenching, and trying new approaches when it’s falling flat,” Setzer said.
One unnamed Democratic strategist frustrated by the administration said, “It’s really simple. Be the f***ing president! I realize it’s tough and you’re drinking out of a fire house every single day, but there are things you can do to control the public perception and they haven’t done any of that.”
“The President has led with urgency and solutions needed to deliver for American families due to Abbott’s recall,” a White House official said, routinely defending Biden and the administration’s response to the baby formula shortage, highlighting his invoking of the Defense Production Act to have baby formula flown into the U.S. at least five times in recent weeks.
White Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged, when speaking to reporters during a recent briefing, that Biden is juggling “multiple crises” at one time.
But isn’t that what the President of the United States is supposed to do daily? I believe that is his job.
Last August, Biden’s polling numbers began their decline, which was around the time he withdrew the last military forces out of Afghanistan after 20 years of war, leaving billions of dollars weaponry in the Taliban’s hands.
With the Taliban’s swift and sudden takeover of Kabul, the deadly and chaotic exit of the U.S. was labeled by both Democrats and Republicans as poorly executed, and a drastic mistake in Biden’s leadership. It was compounded even more by a terrorist bombing that took the lives of 13 American service members.
Every since then, Biden’s polling numbers have been on the decline, indicating there is little likelihood of any recovery.
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