At the end of a week of international travel that took him from the climate conference in Egypt to the G20 summit in Indonesia, US President Joe Biden returned to Washington yesterday with the certainty that he will face a divided congress. Days away from celebrating 80 years, but this is just one of the challenges facing the White House tenant.
divided congress
The midterm elections were not the disaster predicted for the Democratic Party, which retained control of the Senate and narrowly lost control of the House of Representatives. More than eight days after the election, votes are still being counted, but Republicans reached the minimum of 218 congressmen on Wednesday evening, enough to guarantee control of the House. This means they could hamper Biden’s agenda for the last two years of his term, and he will have to resort more to presidential decrees to get around this problem.
The president congratulated the new Majority Leader, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, saying he was “ready to work with House Republicans to secure outcomes for working families,” claiming that “the future is too bright to be caught up in political wars”. But McCarthy has already promised to open several investigations aimed at harming the president, namely the affairs of his son Hunter, but also the withdrawal from Afghanistan or the response to the covid-19 pandemic. And the most radical congressmen are even talking about impeachment attempts.
Biden will no longer be in charge of Nancy Pelosi, who has led the House for nearly 20 years and announced yesterday that in January it will be time to pass the portfolio to a new generation of the party – she, age 82, will remain in Congress to defend the interests of her constituents in San Francisco.
The fact that the Democrats have retained control of the Senate (they already have 50 senators and could still reach 51 if they repeat their victory in Georgia, in the second round on December 6) allows Biden to vote his nominees for the federal courts and to choose who they want for government positions. And if another Supreme Court vacancy happens to come up, Republicans won’t be able to hold back on their choice.
donald trump
Biden has already shown willingness to run for re-election in 2024, but revealed he won’t decide until early next year whether to take the step forward. However, after defeating Donald Trump two years ago and watching the ex-president’s supporters invade Congress to try to prevent the confirmation of his election victory on January 6, 2021, he will have to understand whether he is ready for a new to confront.
Trump announced his 2024 candidacy on Tuesday night, still the favorite among Republicans to return to the White House — but the vote against the former president, including within his party, is growing, especially after the defeat of the candidates he supported the intervals. However, many believe that Trump being a candidate may benefit Biden, as it is easier to use the former president’s negative legacy to gain support than to run against another Republican who, even outside of Trumpism, does not have its faults. judicial investigation🇧🇷
However, more than a year away from the Republican primaries and two from the presidential election, Trump vows to remain a thorn in Biden’s side — even if he has no access (for now) to what was his trump card to facilitate contact with voters, Twitter.
80 years
Biden, who turns 80 on Sunday, is already the oldest president ever in the US and will have to decide whether or not to run for 2024, knowing that he will turn 82 if he wins another term and that he might leave the White House only at the age of 86. Americans typically retire 20 years before this age. While 71% of Democrats believe Biden is “mentally strong and capable of taking on the challenges,” 46% say he may not be up to the challenge of running again, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Overall, 68% of respondents believe Biden won’t be able to do that, and 86% say candidates should be no older than 75.
His age, and the blunders Biden often makes when he leaves the written speech and starts to improvise (he recently confused Colombia with Cambodia), should be a weighty argument for Republicans during the campaign — especially if the opponent isn’t Trump, but someone younger (one of the possible rivals is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is only 44 years old).
war in Ukraine
The American president is also not having an easy time on an international level. The war in Ukraine has now entered its ninth month and the end does not seem to be in sight, despite Russia’s recent setbacks. Biden was among those who expressed restraint after a rocket landed in Poland, killing two people. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quick to point the finger at Moscow, but Poland itself and NATO allies eventually indicated that initial conclusions show that the missile came from Ukraine’s air defenses. Kiev denies it and insists on his claim, with Biden saying “there is no evidence it was Russia”.
A few months ago, Biden had lost all patience with Zelensky in one of the many phone calls between the two. The US president had just announced yet another billion-dollar aid to Ukraine, and his Ukrainian counterpart was already asking for more aid. At the time, Biden said the Americans were “quite generous” and that his administration was working to help Kiev and that he could show “a little more gratitude.” The US has supported Ukraine like no other country – $18.6 billion since the Russian invasion. Republican control of the House of Representatives could reduce future aid.
Washington has also tried to pressure talks between Kiev and Moscow, believing that a victory might not be achieved militarily. But this is a scenario that does not seem to be part of the Ukrainian plans. The concern of the US, like other Western countries, is to contain the conflict and prevent it from spreading into NATO space or the use of nuclear weapons.
Xi Jinping’s China
Biden’s trip to the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, also marked his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping since arriving at the White House — after a series of contacts by phone or video call. The US government does not hide that it sees China as the biggest threat to US economic and national security.
The dialogue with Xi Jinping, who will be re-elected next year for a historic third term, serves to keep the relationship at an amicable level – despite the various possible shocks, from the trade war to the human rights situation in Taiwan. Beijing regards the island as a rebel province, which does not put aside violence to guarantee sovereignty. Biden has reiterated that the US will intervene in the event of a Chinese attack, a position usually softened by the White House.
The focus in the dialogue is on finding common ground🇧🇷 At the summit in Indonesia, that was the common position that Russia should not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine and the resumption of negotiations on climate issues, hoping to give new impetus to the Climate Conference that ends next Friday.
Nuclear
During the meeting with Xi, Biden also reiterated the need for the Chinese to put pressure on North Korea, which continues to test its missiles — one has already flown over Japan this year and another that landed closer than any other in the area . North Korea since the ceasefire that ended the war in 1953. North Korea claims it is testing the missiles in response to joint military exercises by the Washington and Seoul air forces, believing that it actually wants to force Americans to give in to economic sanctions.
Experts also believe Kim Jong-un’s regime is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test – its first since 2017. If this happens, the US, along with North Korea and Japan, promised a “strong and firm” response, after Biden met his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his trip.
Still on nuclear matters, Biden has tried to reactivate the deal with Iran that Trump tore up in 2018, but the negotiations are deadlocked. This comes at a time when, for more than two months, the Tehran regime has been facing and forcibly suppressing a wave of protests triggered by the death of young Kurd Masha Amini, while she was in police custody for allegedly misusing the hijab (Islamic headscarf).
Source: DN
