President Joe Biden is “rattled” by his sinking approval ratings, amidst a plague of crises that his presidency seems totally unprepared to manage. An NBC News report citing unnamed sources inside the White House paint a picture of a collapsing presidency.
“Biden is rattled by his sinking approval ratings and is looking to regain voters’ confidence that he can provide the sure-handed leadership he promised during the campaign, people close to the president say,” according to the report.
“Crises have piled up in ways that have at times made the Biden White House look flat-footed: record inflation, high gas prices, a rise in Covid case numbers — and now a Texas school massacre that is one more horrific reminder that he has been unable to get Congress to pass legislation to curb gun violence,” the report goes on. “Democratic leaders are at a loss about how he can revive his prospects by November, when midterm elections may cost his party control of Congress.”
Biden may be looking for a ‘fall guy’ to boot out of the White House, and one name that keeps coming up is Chief of Staff Ron Klain. The Biden flack is expected to leave after the midterms, but he could be gone sooner. Names cited as potential replacements are long-time Biden confidante Anita Dunn, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, Obama holdover Susan Rice, or even defeated Virginia gubernatorial candidate and former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe.
According to the ‘insider’ report, Biden purportedly feels like the crises that are harming his presidency are akin to Biblical plagues.
“I’ve heard him say recently that he used to say about President Obama’s tenure that everything landed on his desk but locusts, and now he understands how that feels,” a White House official said.
Since this is the mainstream media we’re talking about, we have to ask ourselves what the angle is here. This is the angle: We’re meant to believe that these crises are all beyond Biden’s control. The American people are supposed to feel sorry for him. They are also supposed to look at Biden as a pariah in the Democratic Party who is uniquely ‘incompetent,’ and the rest of the party is blameless. This is a disingenuous framing and it would be a foolish takeaway.
“Amid a rolling series of calamities, Biden’s feeling lately is that he just can’t catch a break,” NBC News goes on. “Biden is frustrated. If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” said a person close to the president. Biden is also upset that he isn’t getting enough media and Democratic Party support.
“The president has also told aides he doesn’t think enough Democrats go on television to defend him,” the report goes on. “A particular sore spot is his slumping poll numbers; he’s mystified that his approval rating has dropped to a level approaching that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, ranked by historians as one of the worst presidents in history.”
“He’s now lower than Trump, and he’s really twisted about it,” another person close to the White House said.
“President Joe Biden’s latest approval rating for May 2022 is lower than former President Donald Trump’s rating for May 2018, showing that the latter was more highly regarded by the public at the same points in their presidencies,” Newsweek reported in mid-May. “Comparing May 20, 2018, to May 20, 2022… Biden scored an approval rating of 40.7 percent, while Trump scored 42.4 percent.”
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