Biden moves to soothe progressive grumblings ahead of reelection announcement
Christian Datoc
Video Embed
President Joe Biden has taken a number of actions as of late to reassure progressive voters of his agenda ahead of a likely reelection campaign announcement next week.
The president failed to deliver on a number of issues critical to the progressive platform during his first two years in office, ranging from advancing voting rights to codifying federal abortion access, and has even earned liberal ire with his flip-flops on COVID-era immigration policy and attempts to boost domestic oil production in the face of historically elevated gas prices following the war in Ukraine.
BIDEN BREAKS SILENCE TO TALK CARE ECONOMY AS REELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT LOOMS
Biden’s political team is tentatively circling Tuesday, the four-year anniversary of his 2020 campaign announcement, for the hard launch of his reelection effort, and the president has spent recent days unveiling numerous executive actions aimed at easing consternation among progressives.
On Tuesday, the president signed a suite of executive orders aimed at expanding the care economy, a critical part of his Build Back Better platform that had to be cut from his ambitious 2022 spending plan.
The orders themselves seek to reduce the cost of child care for families, expand access to affordable long-term care solutions, and boost wages and education opportunities for care workers.
On Thursday, Biden virtually convened the leaders of the Major Economies Forum on Energy for the fourth time as president to further discuss ways to decarbonize energy, end deforestation in the Amazon and other critical forests, reduce all climate pollutants, and advance carbon capture technology.
And Biden signed another executive order on Friday afternoon that the White House said would “revitalize” America’s commitment to advancing “environmental justice for all.”
iFrame Object
Progressive hopes of successfully challenging Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary all but evaporated after he shepherded the party to unexpectedly successful results in the 2022 midterm elections, when Democrats successfully maintained control of the Senate and blocked Republicans from taking a commanding majority in the House.
Pressed by the Washington Examiner on the president’s recent slate of left-leaning executive actions, senior Democratic officials say that Biden is simply “making good” on his campaign promises.
Veteran Democratic campaign operatives do concede that high turnout, rivaling 2020’s historic levels, is necessary for the president to earn a second term in the White House.
“These are issues that President Biden is committed to,” one operative said. “MAGA Republicans in Congress were able to hamstring the president during his first two years in office, but he’ll never stop fighting for the American people, and he’s making the case directly to voters to help him finish the job.”
Despite his recent executive orders, Biden is unlikely to make headway on a topic that is gaining more traction in progressive circles and beyond: gun violence.
Congress did pass the first bipartisan gun violence reform bill in decades in 2022 but cut out massive swathes of the president’s ask, including reinstating the 1994 ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.
However, the president is hosting the “Tennessee Three,” a group of Tennessee state lawmakers who faced ousting votes after leading anti-gun violence protests inside the state Capitol, at the White House on Monday.
The Associated Press published a poll Friday showing how Democrats are split on the idea of four more years of Biden. A majority of Democrats said they wanted someone other than Biden to seek the presidency in 2024, though 81% of the party said they would support him in the general election if he was the nominee.
Meanwhile, not all progressive candidates are backing down from challenging the president this cycle. Former 2020 candidate Marianne Williamson launched her own 2024 bid in March, centered squarely on the idea that Biden had abandoned progressive voters in office.
A poll published shortly after Williamson jumped in the race showed her receiving double-digit support from Democrats, a significant surge from her performance in 2020 that saw her drop out of the primary before Iowa.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The White House seemed to shake off Williamson’s candidacy when pressed by the Washington Examiner if attempts to outflank Biden on the left “frustrated” the president.
“If I had a — what is it called? — a little globe here, a crystal ball, then I could tell you. A magic eight ball, whatever, if I could feel her aura,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the bestselling self-help author. “But I just don’t have anything to share on that.”