One year “of challenges” but also of “progress” : this is how Joe Biden described his first year in office, Wednesday, January 19. He has tried to play down the crisis facing his presidency, blaming Americans’ frustration on the pandemic, while touting his record on the economic front.
“I know there is a lot of frustration and fatigue in this country”, recognized the president from the prestigious “East Room” of the White House, during a rare and highly anticipated press conference, on the eve of the first anniversary of his taking office.
The 79-year-old Democrat needs to find new momentum. He had to, in the space of two months, bury two emblematic promises, namely to renovate the welfare state and protect by a major law access to the vote for minorities, because of too short a parliamentary majority.
Joe Biden blamed these failures on Republicans, acknowledging that he did not “anticipated” such a degree of opposition from the Conservatives to his plans. “I didn’t make too big promises”, he said, “I had not anticipated that there would be such a partisan effort [des républicains] to make sure President Biden can’t accomplish anything”. On several occasions, he has also challenged the Republicans to find out their objectives.
Despite everything, the president promised to pass “wide sections” of its vast social reform by splitting the plan of 1,750 billion dollars (1,543 billion euros) into several investment projects, in particular in the environment and education.
Inflation at its peak
Dismissing any change of course, Joe Biden engaged in a pedagogical exercise. “It has been a year of challenges but also a year of enormous progress”, said the American president, citing in particular the massive vaccination campaign against Covid-19. He pointed out that 75% of American adults were now fully immunized, up from 1% when his administration took over. The leader also boasted of “record job creation”, a “record growth” with an unemployment rate now at 3.9%, compared to 6.4% a year ago.
But, on several occasions, he regretted not having gone into more contact with Americans, in particular with black voters, who had overwhelmingly voted for him in the 2020 presidential election. “I’m going to be on the pitch a lot”, he assured.
If the economic statistics are impressive, inflation reached 7% in 2021. This is what worries Americans today. Fighting against this inflation, at its highest for nearly forty years, will require “a long-term effort”, he conceded. “And until then, it will be painful for many people”, he pointed out.
Inheriting a country bruised by the Covid-19 pandemic, shaken by a historic protest movement against racism, Joe Biden felt that the country was still “not nearly as unified as it should be”.
If he runs again, Kamala Harris will remain his running mate
“The best days of this country are still ahead of us, not behind us”, he hammered. But he remains politically in difficulty: a new Gallup poll places his popularity rating at just 40%, against 57% when he came to power.
Joe Biden has just over a month to correct his image as a president mired in setbacks – between Wednesday’s press conference and his State of the Union address, the traditional policy address for presidents, scheduled for 1is march before Congress.
Afterwards, it will be, according to political commentators, too late to hope to influence the mid-term legislative elections, scheduled for the fall, and which look bad for the Democratic Party. His team pleads for patience, saying they are confident about the final results.
The president has also projected himself into the 2024 election, indicating that he would again choose his current vice-president, Kamala Harris, to be his running mate.