WASHINGTON (AP) – In the White House, President Joe Biden put forward a focused launch of his administration and used his first days in office to break sharply with his predecessor while signing executive orders, intended as a showy display of action to meet the historical challenges. he inherited.
But outside the gates at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., there are signs everywhere that the crises are as deep and unworkable as ever. The coronavirus pandemic, the economy, and Republicans in Congress have raised objections to many of Biden’s plans.
Biden wants to start his first 100 days in office with action and symbolism to assure a divided and weary public that help is in store. He also knows that what a president can do on his own is limited, which is why he calls for Congress to act while being candid with Americans that the dark days are ahead.
“The crisis is not getting any better. It deepens, “Biden said on Friday about the impact of the pandemic. “A lot of America hurts. The virus is on the rise. Families are going hungry. People are in danger of being evicted again. Job losses are increasing. We must act. ”
“The end result is: we’re in a national emergency. “We have to act as if we are in a national emergency,” he said.
Biden’s first moments as president were meant to perpetuate American democracy itself.
He took the oath just before noon Wednesday in front of a Capitol that still bore scars from the uprising that had taken place exactly two weeks earlier and that was aimed at stopping Biden’s power. The violence underscored the fragile nature of the peaceful transfer of power and led to Donald Trump’s historic second indictment.
Biden resists calls to move the inauguration to a safer indoor environment. He intended to preserve the usual inaugural robe as a sign that normalcy could be achieved, although there were signs everywhere that things were far from normal: a military presence that looked like a war zone, guests in the hallway with masks, A National Mall filled with 200,000 American flags coming in for the American people asked to stay away due to the pandemic.
Biden was straightforward about the confluence of crises facing the country. More than 410,000 Americans have lost their lives due to the pandemic, millions are unemployed and the aftermath of a summer of racial justice is still being felt.
“You can hear this collective sigh of relief that Trump is gone, but we have no time for a sigh of relief as a result of the looming crises,” Eddie Glaude Jr., chair of the Department of African-American Studies, told the Princeton University, said. “We do not want to assume that Biden’s election will solve everything. The scale of the problems is enormous and the question for us is whether we are responding on a scale. ”
The changes within the White House were rapid.
After Trump left, his final staff members cleaned up and began a deep cleanup. The White House was the site of several COVID-19 outbreaks, and in a physical expression of a new approach to the virus, plastic screens were placed on the desks and numerous new staff members were told to work from home.
New pictures were hung on the West Wing walls and the Oval Office recovered quickly. Gone is a painting by Andrew Jackson and the Diet Coke button on the desk; there came images of Robert Kennedy and Cesar Chavez. But the most important symbol, the clearest interruption of the previous government, comes from the president himself.
When Biden sat down at the Resolute Desk on Wednesday to sign his first batch of his executive orders, he was wearing a mask. Trump resisted wearing one, wearing it only once, and instead wearing a mask in a polarizing political case
Biden urged all Americans to wear a mask for the next 100 days and used his platform to model the same behavior, one of the different ways he tried to change the tone of the presidency in the first few days.
Daily press conferences returned, without the accusations of ‘fake news’ that characterized only sporadic briefings in the Trump era. Biden took a virtual oath for hundreds of people in the White House, saying they must treat each other with respect, otherwise they would be fired, a clear change from the controversial, Western wing of the rivalry. Calls to the leaders of Canada and Mexico were made without drama.
The executive actions Biden signed during the week were a mixture of concrete and symbolic actions intended to undo the core of Trump’s legacy. Biden halted the construction of the border wall, rejoined the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, and strengthened vaccine production.
But the power of executive action pales in comparison to the $ 1.9 billion COVID-19 aid package he requested from Congress. Biden did not rule out asking Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, DN.Y., to push it through tactics that only require Democratic support. But the president, who has spent decades in the Senate, hoped to persuade Republicans to support the measure.
“Relying on executive action at the outset makes sense, you can get things moving and show momentum right away without waiting for Congress,” said Robert Gibbs, former press secretary to President Barack Obama. “But it’s going to take a while. As for us in 2009, change does not come overnight. ”
“Everything he inherited will probably get worse before we see improvement,” Gibbs said. “One thing you learn on January 20 is that you suddenly own it.”
Only two cabinet nominees were confirmed by the end of the week to the frustration of the White House. But with the Friday night announcement that Trump’s indictment will only begin in the week of Feb. 8, Biden’s assistants were optimistic that the Senate would confirm more before then.
The trial appears to be an unwelcome distraction for the Biden team. But while Trump will overshadow the White House, Biden’s aides have noticed that the former president is paying far less attention now that his Twitter account is gone. They expressed confidence that the Senate could balance the prosecution procedures with both the cabinet confirmations and the consideration of the COVID-19 relief bill.
Biden has made it clear that sending the nation through the pandemic will be its hallmark task, and some Republicans believe Trump’s blast could create an opening to work on the transition to an emergency relief deal.
“There’s a very narrow consent structure for congressional Republicans who want to move beyond the Trump era and establish their own political identity,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012. Romney is now a senator in Utah.
‘There’s an old saying,’ Make the main thing the main thing. “And the Biden White House knows this is the most important thing,” Madden said. ‘If they can improve the pandemic response within the next 100 days, they can go to other priorities, then they have the ability to wage legislative battles. But they have to get it right. ”
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