President Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race has denied him the opportunity for a second term, but it is also fueling new hopes among Democrats that he will be bolder in the remaining months of his first.
Lawmakers say Biden’s new status as a lame-duck president — a position few would have predicted six weeks ago — has freed his White House ally from the grueling rigors of campaigning and the delicate political concerns that accompany seeking reelection.
They hope that an empowered Biden will use his unusual position to advance a series of Democratic policy priorities — through executive action if necessary — that would have no chance of passing through the bitterly divided Congress but could shine a spotlight on specific issues and define a campaign. of messages during his last months in office.
“He has five months until then to get some things done,” said Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), chairwoman of the moderate New Democratic Coalition.
“He can really lean on [on] what he cares about and the mark he wants to leave. And he doesn’t have to worry about other people’s expectations of what he will accomplish,” she added. “I think this could be liberating for him.”
Biden dropped out of the 2024 race last month and endorsed Vice President Harris to succeed him at the top of the ticket, a decision that shook the political world, threw the election into uncharted territory and turned Biden into that rarest of political animals: a voluntary lame president in the first term.
Biden is only the second president in sixty years not to run for a second term. The last was Lyndon Johnson, who dropped out of the 1968 race amid health problems and a decline in popularity during the Vietnam War.
For the president, it is the first time in his roughly five-decade political career that he has not had an upcoming election to look forward to – and prepare for – after seven successful Senate races, two terms as vice president in the administration. of President Obama and a term leading his own country.
The decision seemed agonizing for Biden, who was initially determined to stay in the race even after the disastrous June debate that sank his campaign. However, the unusual dynamic, according to several optimistic House Democrats, could prove to the president’s advantage on the political front, allowing him to reinforce his legacy in areas as diffuse as foreign policy, the economy and the environment. ways he could have avoided. if he were still running for a second term.
“President Biden no longer has the burning ambition to run for anything. And so, for the first time in his life – his political life which, remember, goes back to when he was 27 or 26 – he gets to reflect on the legacy,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). “So he can enhance the legacy, even though he already has a pretty brilliant legacy.”
Biden kicked off his swan song late last month with a series of major proposals to reform the Supreme Court, including 18-year term limits for justices, enacting a binding code of conduct for the court and a constitutional amendment that says Former presidents do not have immunity from federal criminal charges – a direct response to the high court ruling granting former President Trump some protection in his legal proceedings.
The proposals, to be sure, have little chance of becoming law — particularly the term limits and immunity change, which would require significant support on Capitol Hill — but the effort has pleased Democrats, who are now eager to see more action from a Biden without restrictions.
“The Supreme Court we have now is not the Supreme Court I learned about in my civics classes,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “I hope he continues to talk about the need to have a court that is not influenced by money or ideology, when you have [jurists]who really want to interpret the Constitution and hold the court to the highest possible standard.”
Connolly, who previously served as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Biden was on the panel, said he wants the president to find a way to ensure continued funding for Ukraine, which has been called into question as more and more Republicans adopt an isolationist view of foreign policy.
Congress in April approved more than $60 billion for Ukraine, the product of a months-long battle – both between the parties and within the contentious Republican Party conference – over the future of foreign aid. But with Kiev still at war with Moscow, Connolly said lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are concerned about Washington’s erosion of support for its embattled ally in the future, concerns that were amplified after Trump picked Sen. J.D. Vance ( R-Ohio), a noted critic of aid to Ukraine, to serve as his running mate.
“I hope he can find a way to secure continued funding for Ukraine. Very important,” said Connolly. “Our allies and Ukraine itself are deeply concerned about the uncertainty of the future and the US commitment. And anything and everything he can do to secure that commitment before he leaves office will be a really important part of his legacy.”
McGovern said Biden’s lame duck status could also open a path for him to facilitate a Middle East peace deal, an issue that has been at the forefront in Washington — and around the world — after Hamas attacked Israel in 7 of October. the war has tormented Biden and Democrats politically since the deadly offensive, pitting the party’s staunchest Israel allies against pro-Palestinian progressives outraged by rising civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip.
“He has an opportunity to try to broker a lasting peace in the Middle East and perhaps to put us on the path to reconciliation and peace in the world, rather than always being on the brink of major conflict,” McGovern said.
The Massachusetts Democrat also said he wants Biden to “change our stupid policy toward Cuba,” calling it “a relic of the Cold War.”
“Take them off the terrorist list and do what you can with your executive order to normalize relations as much as you can,” McGovern said. “And not only is it the right thing to do because it will help the Cuban people, but we have hundreds of thousands of Cubans who come to the United States because they cannot survive in Cuba because of all the sanctions we have in place.”
Democrats are also pushing Biden to take additional steps to protect the environment.
Last month, Representative Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, wrote to the president calling for executive action to reduce pollution in the international shipping industry, a major emitter of climate-changing greenhouse gases. . That effort has been endorsed by more than a dozen other House Democrats, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), head of the Progressive Caucus, and Mark Takano (D-Calif.), whose Southern California district is troubled by some of the worst air quality in the country.
“Facing the growing threat of climate change, the shipping industry must change course to avoid devastating impacts,” lawmakers wrote to Biden.
Other Democrats have pointed to darker issues they want Biden to address in his final months in office.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a senior Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, said he expects the president to clarify that the United States has no intention of purchasing Bitcoin as a formal policy – a response to Trump’s pledge, delivered last monthat a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, to use a second White House term to launch a federal storage policy for the controversial cryptocurrency.
“He should make it clear that the US government will not use taxpayer money to invest in crypto,” Sherman said. “I was shocked to see Trump suggest… the other side of this.”
There are clear limits, of course, to what Biden can accomplish without help from Congress. And several Democrats noted that — on issues like expanding paid family leave, access to child care and other family-friendly economic benefits that are pillars of the party’s agenda — the administration has already adopteda series of executive actions, leaving little more the president can do without more funding from Capitol Hill.
“I think he did everything he could outside of the appropriations process,” said a Democratic aide. “He’s doing the work, but without the appropriators – without the money – there’s very little you can do. He did everything he could regulatory-wise.”
There are also the election year considerations that Biden may still be weary of, even though he is off the ticket. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) urged the president to delay any legacy-making moves until after the November elections in case there is downward influence on Harris.
“I don’t think he’s going to try to do dramatic things that they think would hurt Kamala’s chances there and that could be used against her,” Ivey said.
At the very least, though, Democrats are urging Biden to stay the course even in his new political capacity, arguing that his legislative record speaks for itself — lame or not.
“He should do what he has done: do the best job he can as president and hopefully communicate that to the American people,” Sherman said.
“Nothing is as good for politics as good policy and good performance.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
