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WASHINGTON (AP) – Inside the White House, President Joe Biden presided over a targeted launch of his administration, using his early days in office to abruptly break with his predecessor while signing executive decrees meant to be a showy display action to meet the historical challenges it inherited.
But outside the doors of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., there are signs everywhere that these crises are as deep and intractable as ever. Outbreaks of the coronavirus pandemic, economic shifts and Republicans in Congress have signaled objections to many of Biden’s plans.
Biden is looking to revive his first 100 days in power with action and symbolism to reassure a divided and weary audience that help is in sight. He also knows that what a president can do on his own is limited, so he calls on Congress to act while being upfront with Americans that dark days are ahead.
“The crisis is not improving. It’s getting deeper, ”Biden said on Friday of the impact of the pandemic. “A lot of America is suffering. The virus is increasing. Families are hungry. People are at risk of being deported again. Job losses are increasing. We have to act. “
“The bottom line 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 meant to stabilize American democracy itself.
He was sworn in just before noon on Wednesday outside a Capitol that still bore the scars of the insurgency that took place precisely two weeks earlier and aimed to stop 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 indictment.
Biden has resisted calls to move the inauguration to a more secure indoor setting. He was determined to preserve the usual pitfalls of the inauguration as a signal that normalcy could be achieved even though there were signs everywhere that things were far from normal: a military presence that looked like a war zone. , guests on the stage wearing masks, a National Mall filled with 200,000 American flags replacing the American people who have been asked to stay away due to the pandemic.
Biden has been outspoken and blunt about the confluence of crises facing the nation. More than 410,000 Americans have lost their lives to the pandemic, millions are out of work, and the aftershocks of a summer of racial justice are still being felt.
“You can hear that collective sigh of relief that Trump is gone, but we don’t have time to sigh in relief because of the cascading crises,” said Eddie Glaude Jr., director of the African American studies department. from 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 are responding on a large scale. “
The changes within the White House have been rapid.
After Trump left, his last members of staff were eliminated and a deep clean-up began. The White House had been the site of several COVID-19 outbreaks and, in a physical manifestation of a new approach to the virus, plastic shields were placed on desks and many new staff were asked to work. home.
New photos were hung on the west wing walls and the Oval Office was quickly renovated. No more Andrew Jackson painting and the Coca-Cola button on the desk; in came images of Robert Kennedy and Cesar Chavez. But the most important symbol, the sharpest break with the previous administration, came from the president himself.
When Biden sat down at the Resolute Desk to sign his first batch of his executive orders on Wednesday, he was wearing a mask. Trump had resisted wearing one, putting on only occasionally and instead turning mask-wearing into a polarizing political issue
Biden urged all Americans to wear a mask for the next 100 days and used his platform to model the same behavior, one of the many ways he tried to change the tone of the Presidency during his early days. days.
Daily press briefings returned, in the absence of accusations of “fake news” which marked only sporadic briefings in the Trump era. Biden held a virtual swearing-in for hundreds of White House staff, telling them to treat each other with respect or they would be fired, a marked change from Trump’s controversial and rivalry-motivated West Wing . The appeals to the leaders of Canada and Mexico went without drama.
The executive actions Biden signed during the week were a mix of concrete and symbolic actions meant to undo the core of Trump’s legacy. Biden halted construction of the border wall, joined the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement, and bolstered vaccine production facilities.
But the potency of the executive’s actions pales in comparison to the $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package it has requested from Congress. Biden didn’t rule out asking Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, DN.Y., to push him through tactics that only required Democratic backing. But the president, who spent decades in the Senate, was hoping to persuade Republicans to support the measure.
“Relying on executive action makes sense early on, you can get things done and show momentum right away without waiting for Congress,” said Robert Gibbs, former press secretary to President Barack Obama . “But it’s going to take a while. As with us in 2009, change does not happen overnight.
“Anything he’s inherited is likely to get worse before we see any improvement,” Gibbs said. “One thing you learn on January 20 is that you suddenly own it.”
Only two cabinet candidates were confirmed at the end of the week, to the frustration of the White House. But with Friday night’s announcement that Trump’s impeachment trial won’t begin until the week of February 8, Biden’s advisers were optimistic the Senate would confirm more before then.
The trial appears to be an unwanted distraction for Biden’s team. But as Trump will follow the White House, Biden aides noted that the former president is getting far less attention now that his Twitter account is gone. They expressed confidence that the Senate can balance the impeachment process with Cabinet confirmations and consideration of the COVID-19 relief bill.
Biden has made it clear that guiding the country through the pandemic will be his primary task, and some Republicans believe Trump’s implosion could create an opening to work across the aisle on a relief deal.
“There is a very narrow licensing structure for Republicans in Congress who want to pass the Trump era and want to establish their own political identity,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. in 2012. Romney is now a senator from Utah.
“There is an old saying: ‘Make the essentials the main’. And the White House Biden knows that’s the bottom line, ”Madden said. “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 battles.” But they have to get it right. “
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Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire
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