Biden cultivates presidential aura as Republicans implode

Washington – As the Republican Party tears itself apart, US President Joe Biden has quietly left them to it in a bid to show he is the calm alternative to chaos.

The Democrat focused this week on a series of voter-friendly announcements on healthcare and student debt, while his rivals were grabbing unwanted headlines with their brutal infighting.

The 80-year-old, who is battling low approval ratings ahead of next year’s US presidential election, had little to say about the coup that saw hardline Republicans oust their own House speaker Kevin McCarthy.

And he stayed silent as Donald Trump, his most likely rival in the 2024 presidential election, sat with a face like thunder between his lawyers in one of his many court cases.

“Biden being in the background is a very good strategy,” Robert Rowland, a political communication expert at the University of Kansas, told AFP.

“He should demonstrate he is a strong president and let the Republican bloodbath unfold. He cannot do anything about it, he might as well let the Democrats benefit from it.”

– ‘Split screen’ –

The strategy plays into the White House’s “split screen strategy” to highlight the contrast with the Republicans — often literally using side-by-side images on social media.

Biden made limited use of the world’s most famous political stage as the Republicans imploded, giving only a brief televised statement on Sunday after a deal in Congress to avert a government shutdown.

In the austere presidential setting of a cabinet meeting the next day he then repeated himself almost word for word and refused to answer questions from reporters.

After speaker McCarthy’s downfall on Tuesday, there was just a White House statement talking up Biden’s willingness to work with both sides and warning of “urgent challenges facing our nation.” 

Instead, on Wednesday Biden was due to make comments about $9 billion in student debt relief, an issue that affects millions of Americans, after the Supreme Court canceled his loan forgiveness program in June.

On Tuesday the White House uploaded a video of him talking about how drugmakers have agreed to negotiate on reducing prices, a key plank of his bid to cut soaring healthcare costs ahead of elections.

And on Monday he hosted a photo-friendly event to celebrate disability legislation featuring US actress Selma Blair, who has multiple sclerosis, during which her support dog rested its head on the presidential foot.

– ‘Always fighting’ –

Republicans have noticed, and are not happy.

Trump — whose hardline Republican allies launched the coup against McCarthy — lamented, “Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves.”

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina who is a close Trump ally, said the turmoil means Biden “gets a break and takes the focus and attention away from his many failures in office.”

But the strategy is not without risk.

If the US becomes paralyzed by the political chaos, with the House in search of a speaker and a new budget shutdown cliff looming in November, it’s unlikely Biden could stay so hands-off.

Voters are already concerned about Biden’s age and effectiveness, while his message of economic revival has struggled to cut through.

And Biden was forced to reassure allies this week that US aid to Ukraine would continue, after it was left out of the deal to avoid a shutdown amid hardline Republican opposition.

Biden and the Democrats could now struggle to get a fresh package of assistance for Kyiv through a House convulsed by Republican infighting.

“If they have misread the level of Republican support, the strategy could lead to a failure to get additional funding for Ukraine,” said Rowland.