Joe Biden reassures worried Democrats: Following a couple of weeks of bad news, the president’s team is seeking to reassure his supporters that he’s in a good position heading into the election.
Joe Biden Says to Chill
It’s been a few weeks of bad news for President Biden. Inflation remains stubbornly high, even if down from the heights of last year. He appears to be ticking down in general election polls against former President Donald Trump. His son was indicted on federal weapons charges. Polls have shown that voters are concerned about his age. And House Republicans have announced that they’re launching an impeachment inquiry.
But if Biden supporters are worried, the president’s team is seeking to reassure them.
According to an Axios report Wednesday, Joe Biden’s staffers are telling worried supporters to “clam up and chill out.”
The message is being delivered by Mike Donilon, a senior White House adviser, and he’s telling backers of the president that he sees Biden winning thanks to two things: The abortion issue, and the presence in the race of Donald Trump.
However, the report also said that “Democrats have been struck by top White House aides’ confidence. Some worry it’s hubris.”
The Joe Biden team plans to use a strategy that it calls its “Rose Garden Strategy,” which entails “protecting democracy, abortion rights, and a resilient economy, including a historically low unemployment rate.”
They expect Biden to be helped in the coming months, and especially next year when Trump begins making regular court appearances.
Biden’s team has also frequently stated that it remains early, and it is better to judge the health of the campaign once the actual general election campaign is underway.
“We don’t take the ups and downs of individual polls to heart,” one senior Biden adviser told Axios. “What will matter next year is when our voters are fully engaged.”
“While Republicans are going after each other, we are already reaching persuadable voters in battleground states,” the adviser added, referencing the Democrats’ lack of a real competitive primary in this cycle. “Our eyes are focused on the long game.”
Axios cited a recent CBS News/YouGov poll that not only had Biden trailing Trump, but found that just one-third of those surveyed expect Biden to be able to t. Another poll this week had Biden and Trump tied at 44 percent, with 7 percent undecided and another 4 percent saying they do not plan to vote. That poll had been led by Biden for the last several months.
The RealClearPolitics average of head-to-head polls now has Trump winning by an average of 0.5 percent, with several recent polls between the two listed as tied.
Biden’s team also believes that their candidate has been frequently underestimated in the past, including when he looked finished in the early 2020 primaries, and also when Democrats were expected to suffer a huge defeat in the 2022 midterm elections.
Also this week, Biden announced the creation of the American Climate Corps, described by the White House as a New Deal-style climate jobs training program. Such plans had been announced early on in the Biden Administration but are finally launching now.
Joe Biden. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
“The American Climate Corps will mobilize a new, diverse generation of more than 20,000 Americans – putting them to work conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy-efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice, all while creating pathways to high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience jobs in the public and private sectors after they complete their paid training program,” the White House said in its announcement of the program.
“We’re opening up pathways to good-paying careers, lifetimes of being involved in the work of making our communities more fair, more sustainable, more resilient,” climate policy adviser Ali Zaidi told the press this week.
Per NPR, there has been some consternation from some progressives in the Democratic Party that the bill should have gotten more funding.
Author Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles over the years that focus on politics, technology, and the economy for over a decade. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
