Wwhat difference 24 hours can make. Joe Biden is known to avoid large press conferences. He prefers the small format in which he controls things. On Wednesday afternoon, however, he invited to the State Dining Room in the White House. Dense crowd under the portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The President enters the room without a triumphant gesture, but with an evident sense of satisfaction.
It was “a good day for democracy” and “a good day for America,” says Biden. American democracy has been challenged in recent years, but voters have once again stood up for it: the record turnout has shown it – and the election officials and officials have done their duty. Not all the results have been determined yet, but what is clear is that the predicted red wave did not exist. He was always confident: although his Democrats had lost a few seats, it was still a strong evening for the party. Then: “We’ve lost fewer House seats than any Democratic president in his first congressional election in 40 years.”
Biden praises his own course
He allowed himself so much self-praise after everything he had had to listen to in the past few weeks. Nevertheless, he admitted that the voters had also expressed their concerns, not only about inflation but also about the increase in crime. His investment policy still has to take effect. Finally, the voters had made it clear that they were ready to defend democracy.
That was Biden’s key message after the election. His people in the White House had previously provided the political translation for the President’s words: Biden sees the election result as confirmation of his agenda of investing in infrastructure, climate protection and social programs. These are popular. He advertised the agenda during the election campaign, he didn’t hide it. It has also proven to be the right thing to do about Donald Trump and the “Storming of the Capitol” on January 6, 2021.
Hope for cooperative Republicans
Biden also sent a message to the Republicans, who should soon control the House of Representatives, albeit not with the majority they hoped for. He, Biden, is willing to work with the Republicans and find compromises. But he will not deviate from his agenda afterwards. He later spoke on the phone to Kevin McCarthy, the current minority leader, whom he said he didn’t know well. The President announced that he would invite the leadership of Congress to the White House after his trip to the G-20 summit. Voters said they didn’t “want to live through a political battle every day.” He doesn’t believe that Trump’s “Mega-MAGA-Republicans” can be liberated from their delusion. But he thinks “that they are a minority in the Republican Party”. When asked that the Republicans had planned to hunt him down and set up several investigative committees – into the Afghanistan withdrawal and also into his son Hunter’s business practices – he only replied that the people wanted to look ahead.
