Joe Biden is having the worst week of his presidency so far
By: MSN
Comes with the territory. There is no Utopia.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Joe Biden's presidential honeymoon has officially ended, with a series of problems -- led by the ongoing surge of the Delta variant of the coronavirus -- coalescing to make the last few days some of the worst ones he has spent as president.
© BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images US President Joe Biden walks from Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House July 13, 2021, in Washington, DC.
Consider the current landscape Biden faces:
* The United States is now averaging more than 85,000 daily cases of Covid-19 -- up from 23,000 just three weeks ago. While the White House touted Monday that it had reached its goal of 70% of the population with at least one vaccine shot, it came almost a month after Biden's publicly stated goal of July 4 to meet that mark.
* The Biden administration is engaged in a circular firing squad over the CDC's recommendation that even vaccinated individuals must wear masks indoors if they live in areas where spread of the virus is high.
* In the wake of the moratorium on evictions expiring on August 1 -- meaning millions of Americans will be now need to pay both rent and back rent or face being kicked out of their residences -- a blame game has broken out. House Democrats -- led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- have said they didn't have enough time to fix the problem before Congress left for the August recess, and are calling on Biden to take action. The White House insists it doesn't have the power to extend the moratorium. As CNN wrote over the weekend: "The back-and-forth exposed a rare divide between President Joe Biden and members of his party and led to veiled accusations of who was to blame."
* The number of unaccompanied minors picked up at the US southern border likely hit an all-time high in July. "The sharp increases from June were striking because crossings usually slow during stifling — and sometimes fatal — summer heat," wrote the the Associated Press.
Even in what looks like a victory -- the Senate's bipartisan agreement on a "hard" infrastructure bill -- problems are cropping up for Biden. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham's positive test for Covid-19 -- and the time he spent on Sen. Joe Manchin's house boat over the weekend with a group of other senators -- could delay passage of the measure in the Senate.
And even assuming the legislation passes the Senate, which it should, liberals in the House are already talking publicly and loudly about their dissatisfaction with some pieces of the Senate bill. "Good luck tanking your own party's investment on child care, climate action, and infrastructure while presuming you'll survive a 3 vote House margin — especially after choosing to exclude members of color from negotiations and calling that a 'bipartisan accomplishment,'" tweeted Ocasio-Cortez at Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema following the latter's announcement of her opposition to the $3.5 trillion price tag for a second, "soft" infrastructure bill.
Biden, likely influenced by the skepticism of House liberals for the bipartisan infrastructure deal, tweeted this out Tuesday morning: "The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will give working people a fighting chance again. We can't afford not to do it."
While a majority of the country still approves of the job Biden is doing in office -- largely thanks to strong approval for the way he and his administration have handled the Covid-19 pandemic -- those numbers have begun to flag somewhat.
In an April Monmouth University poll, 54% approved of how Biden was handling the presidency while 41% disapproved. In the latest Monmouth survey, released at the end of July, just 48% approved while 44% disapproved.
What does the future -- or, at least, the next few weeks -- hold for Biden? The honest answer is no one knows.
Like much of the first six months of Biden's presidency, almost everything depends on Covid-19. Does the Delta variant continue to ravage unvaccinated communities? Do deaths from the virus surge? Does the recent increase in vaccinations last? Can the administration overcome its initial messaging struggles on the need to put masks back on in some parts of the country?
The answers to those questions will determine whether this is a temporary blip or the start of a longer decline for Biden and his administration. At the moment, things look bad for Biden. A Gallup poll released Monday showed that just 40% of Americans believe the coronavirus situation is getting better in the US. That's a stunning drop from the 89% who said the same in Gallup polling in June.
Everything -- and I mean EVERYTHING -- flows from the Covid news. And the truth is that Biden's ability to change the current story on Covid-19 in this country is decidedly limited.
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This too shall pass Mr. Biden.................well it usually does anyway as long as people don't overreact and do stupid
The ongoing super spreader event at the border is not helping Biden's stats.
Biden's alleged "strong suit" was how he dealt with Covid. According to a very recent Harvard/Harris poll, Biden's tanking even on that as well as other categories.
Oh, you mean using all of the Trump's activities bringing the vaccines on line - so Biden can claim credit???
All Biden had to do was sit back after his inauguration, eat ice cream, and let Trump's vaccine, southern border (illegal aliens, etc), foreign and economic policies continue to progress as well as they had and we'd be in a much better place today.
Oh i thought you were talking about the event on our border. Michigan ....... and the CovidPalooza concert that just finished up Chiraq.
Do you mean the 1000+ illegals who've been under the Mission, TX bridge documented by the Fox News Channel's drone for several days? Or the Covid positive illegals eating at the What-a-Burger who live in a nearby hotel? Or thousands of Covid positive illegals quickly and stealthily transported by buses and planes to cities in TN, FL, and other states in the middle of the night so Biden and Majorkas can say that illegal encounters at the border have "slowed down"?
Come on now, just admit that no matter what he'd done, whether sitting on his hands or volunteering to work in the Covid ward of a hospital, nothing would have been good enough for the bitterly defeated conservative Republicans.
The Delta variant would have been having the same effect either way, the morons not getting vaccinated would still be causing a surge in Covid cases, there would still be an aggressive debate over Covid protocols for those vaccinated, there would still be some who did get vaccinated contracting Covid as we all knew the vaccines were only 86-94% effective so if 6-14 out of every hundred who get vaccinated can get infected that would mean thousands out of the millions are still at risk, the additional unemployment benefits and housing protections were designed to sunset eventually as they are financially unsustainable, and we've had a 'crisis' at the border for decades, this is just the most recent surge with asylum seekers and migrants hoping a less bigoted, reasonable and fair minded President would be less likely to throw them in cages or separate them from their children.
The 'worst week' for Biden is still a thousand times better than just about any week under his predecessor who lied to the American people about Covid, dismissed the recommended safety protocols, lied about the election results and tried desperately to get the Justice department to declare the election rigged so he could arbitrarily dismiss the will of the American people and keep himself in power, and that's all after he had been impeached. Trying to pick on Biden's faults after having such a monumental disaster in the oval office is like complaining to the waiter that your soup is cold after the previous restaurant you visited served you a bowl of dog shit soup with floating flies and used dirty Band-Aids.
What does "dog shit soup with floating flies and used dirty Band-Aids" taste like? I've been to hundreds of restaurants in the US and foreign countries but never saw this on their menus. Just curious.
In all likelihood it will, the passage of time sprays many with a coating of teflon. Canada's PM, Trudeau, had several worst months and yet seems poised to win the upcoming election.
And not doing stupid seems a bit far of a reach for these people
Somehow, some way ..... it's still Dubya's fault ..... and of course Trumps
Biden has the advantage of following the worst president in American history. Nothing he does looks as bad as what came before.
And he worked for him as his VP. Looks like Mr. Biden didn't learn much...........or maybe he did...........
Seems President Biden was counting on a seasonal event .. otherwise I think he would have put someone else beside VP Harris in charge. Her 5 pillar plan is a whirlpool of political double speak for 'throw money at corrupt governments' and form committees to establish 'comprehensive' immigration reform in order to create a path to citizenship for illegals.
Why does this nation throw money at other nations problems while our own citizens suffer in poverty .. many neighborhoods crippled with gang violence - schools falling down etc etc ... makes zero sense to me!