President Biden blamed “MAGA Republicans” for bringing the federal government to the brink of a costly shutdown. Days later, Biden’s tone shifted after a group of far-right House Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.
“More than anything, we need to change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington,” Biden said Wednesday, in remarks directed to both parties. “I know we have strong disagreements, but we need to stop seeing each other as enemies.”
The contrasting messages underscored a central challenge for Biden heading into the 2024 election: governing as a self-styled bipartisan consensus-builder while running a reelection campaign focused on attacking a Republican Party that remains bound to former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.
“He has to do more than one thing at once right now, and sometimes those things [can appear] contradictory,” Tad Devine, a veteran Democratic strategist, told Newsweek.
“Biden has to offer reassurance by talking about making the government work,” Devine said, “but he also has to make a clear and consistent contrast” between his policies and the Republican Party’s agenda.
This dilemma isn’t new. Presidents up for reelection always have to juggle the dual roles of running the country and running a partisan political campaign.
But wearing both hats in convincing fashion is critical for Biden, who campaigned in 2020 on a promise to bring the country together after the Trump years. The task has become increasingly difficult in recent months as Biden encounters growing Republican opposition on a number of fronts.
Biden is facing an impeachment inquiry from House Republicans, daily criticism from Trump and other Republican presidential candidates, and staunch opposition to his policies on Ukraine and other issues from GOP lawmakers in Congress.
Growing Republican opposition to Biden’s support for Ukraine was at the center of the spending debate that nearly caused a government shutdown and then led days later to the historic vote Tuesday to remove McCarthy as speaker.
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Republicans and Democrats alike conceded that McCarthy’s ouster in the short term will politically benefit Biden and his party and hurt the GOP.
“This certainly reinforces the notion that it’s a party in chaos,” Rick Ridder, a Democratic consultant, told Newsweek.
Republicans eager to move on from the episode expressed hope that the damage could be limited if the House GOP caucus moves swiftly to approve a new speaker.
“It’s not a good look, obviously,” Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist, told Newsweek. “If they resolve this relatively quickly, next week or the following week, it won’t be much of an issue” in the long run.
So far, two House Republicans have announced their candidacies for speaker: Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee and one of the leaders of the House GOP investigations into Biden.
Scalise and Jordan are vocal Biden critics who would follow McCarthy’s playbook of opposing the administration at every turn. The other House Republicans rumored to be mulling a run for the speakership are just as unlikely to want to work with Biden, especially in an election year.
In the end, any bump in the polls Biden may get from the House chaos won’t last or have a big impact on the early stages of the 2024 race, Ridder and other Democrats said. And the lingering anger in both parties over the general dysfunction in Congress will complicate Biden’s efforts to bring Republicans and Democrats together.
Perhaps for that reason Biden has tried to steer clear of the Republican fight for speaker.
“That’s above my pay grade,” Biden told reporters the day after McCarthy was ousted, when asked what advice he may have for McCarthy’s successor.
As Biden searched for higher ground, he left the sharp-elbowed partisan messaging up to his campaign.
“Democrats continue to fight for working Americans by growing the economy,” the campaign wrote Thursday in an email to supporters. “The other side is focused on destroying the progress we’ve made, and extreme MAGA politicians are actively working to undermine our democratic institutions.”