Washington Anyone who was worried about the US President’s mental fitness was at least reassured on this point on Wednesday: Joe Biden answered questions from the White House Press Corps for a full two hours without any major interruptions. But overall, the first press conference of the New Year was more like a defense.
A year after taking office, the president is weakened and the midterms are causing headaches for many Democrats. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and more than 34 of 100 seats in the Senate will be up for vote in November, and the polls are not looking good for Joe Biden.
After pushing through a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package in the first year, his other plans have met with resistance. Instead of getting the corona pandemic under control, Omikron currently has the USA under control. And in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is currently testing how far he can go with Biden.
The US President tried all the harder in the press conference on the American afternoon to emphasize his achievements and to minimize his failures or blame them on others. He did recognize inflation – a key campaign issue for Republicans – as a problem for American citizens. But he cleverly delegated responsibility for this to the Fed. A clear sign that he would welcome rate hikes.
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The fact that his government failed to push through the ambitious Build Back Better legislative package worth billions was not only attributed to dissenting votes from within his own ranks, but also to a lack of cooperation from Republicans. He had never seen a politician who had been voted out – by which Trump was meant – exert so much influence that not a single Republican voted for him. Five Republicans had given him their approval in a personal conversation. However, they feared their re-election if they voted for a Biden bill.
Legislative package for climate, health and family support
After all, Biden has promised a solution for this failure. He wants to split the legislative package into sub-areas: climate, health and help for families. So at least parts of his plans should be realized. This approach is considered to be promising because individual areas of the mega package have been met with approval.
As for his position on Russia and Ukraine, Biden again threatened severe consequences, but at the same time promised a certain willingness to negotiate. “Putin has never experienced such sanctions,” he warned. At the same time, he made it clear that the country’s threats were not empty: “Great nations cannot bluff”. As for the dependence of Europeans on Russian gas, the Russians also depend on the income from gas sales.
Biden showed a certain willingness to negotiate on two points made by Putin: Biden said he would not accept anything about the demand that Ukraine should not be allowed to join NATO. But he clarified that the likelihood of Ukraine joining NATO in the next few years is “not very high”. The demand not to station any strategic weapons in Ukraine could be discussed. In Romania or Poland, on the other hand, the troops will remain and maybe even be increased if Putin attacks Ukraine.
“Putin has never experienced sanctions like this,” Biden warned in reference to the Ukraine crisis.
(Foto: imago images/SNA)
Biden acknowledged failures in the fight against Covid and continues to rely on vaccinations and new medicines to combat the disease. On the thorny issue of immigration, Biden again blamed Republicans for not supporting him. If his bill had passed, “we would be in a better position today,” he said.
Midterms will be crucial
But that’s how democracy works. And longtime politician Joe Biden knows that too. The opposition is trying to damage the ruling party. This is not always done out of reason, but because elections are imminent. The Republicans are currently mainly against his government, but have no ideas of their own. “What are you for?” he asks, “name me one thing you are for!”
Biden made it clear that he wants to be more visible to the outside world during the election campaign in order to talk to citizens and support the Democratic candidates.
In the midterms, what counts is what the Democrats will do with the coming months. Republican Mitch McConnell recently described the election as a testament to Biden. The associated grades depended on the issues of inflation, border security and whether he put Putin in his place.
When asked what he thinks about the bad polls, Biden has a short answer: “I don’t believe in polls.”
More: “Markets continue to expect high inflation” – economist Fuest on the significance of the turnaround in interest rates
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