Biden’s news conference was pretty boring. That’s just fine.
The most impressive revelation on Thursday from President Joe Biden’s first news conference was that he has a plan and he intends to stick with it. Biden steadfastly insisted that the next priority on his list was the nation’s infrastructure, despite shinier objects like election reform or gun control.
“I want to get things done,” Biden said, while stressing his belief in “the art of the possible” and the importance of timing. He made clear that despite recent events tugging him in different directions, including two mass shootings, the country’s infrastructure needs are up next. Having a plan, and carrying it out despite inevitable distractions, are two admirable achievements for any new administration. If Biden’s resolve holds throughout his presidency despite strong pressure from others in his party, he’ll have more success than most.
Biden’s first priority was a massive spending bill packaged as covid-19 relief, and on this he again revealed his style of framing a challenge that wasn’t really the challenge at all, and claiming to have overcome it. Biden said people probably didn’t think he could get it passed “without any Republican votes,” but “pretty big deal, got passed.” Actually, his challenge was to live up to his promise to be a bipartisan president and gain GOP support for his legislation. Passing bills on purely partisan votes was something everyone thought he could do, given the Democrats’ control of both houses of Congress,but shouldn’t if he could help it.
Never mind. Biden said he is a bipartisan president. “I’ve not been able to unite the Congress, but I’ve united the country, based on the polling data,” he said. It was a good line. There was some news. He said he expects to run for reelection, but grew understandably annoyed at questions lingering on 2024. He spent a lot of time discussing China, revealing a reassuring understanding that its growing dominance in various arenas is worth his full attention, framing the issue as a choice between “autocracy or democracy.” He wants to pass the House’s election reform bill to counteract GOP efforts in the states. He offered conflicting signals on whether to keep the filibuster, indicating a preference for the old-fashioned “talk until you drop” style of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” but also noting that he has 50 votes and the tiebreaker, and he doesn’t intend to let that go to waste.
He seemed somewhat obsessed with his predecessor, invoking Donald Trump’s name several times without really being prompted. He contrasted his approach to the southern border with Trump’s, but didn’t explain why he abandoned Trump’s policies before having a solid plan to replace them. He said a surge happens this time every year, casting doubt on whether there are more unaccompanied minors, which most agree there certainly are.
Biden’s courteous relationship with the press corps was evident, especially compared with Trump’s. He avoided calling on Peter Doocy of Fox News, who might have asked him something more interesting and even controversial.
As has been the case with Biden since he announced his candidacy, there was much focus going into Thursday on questions of age and acuity. Since the beginning of the 2020 campaign, most fair observers acknowledged that Biden is not the same Biden that America watched for decades as a senator and through eight years as vice president. He’s at least a step slower, in many observable ways.
The COVID pandemic let Biden employ a “basement strategy” during the campaign, leading to questions of whether he could have handled the rigors of traditional barnstorming. Before his first debate with Trump, speculation centered on whether Biden could stand and deliver for 90 minutes without a break. Trump, true to form, delivered such a manic performance that Biden was barely tested, and Biden won by just watching in disbelief with the rest of us. In their second and final debate, Biden did fine.
But in the early months of his presidency, Biden has done little to reassure. His appearances are infrequent and brief. He often speaks in disjointed phrases. His recent stumbles while climbing the steps of
Air Force One were painful to watch, and it was something he should have been asked about Thursday.
But overall, Biden was good. He called on about 10 or 11 reporters and held forth for an hour or so. His habit of trailing off mid-thought is probably more an indication of deciding not to say something than of losing his train of thought. At least, that’s the benefit of the doubt we should give him for now.
If anything, Thursday’s long-anticipated news conference was pretty dry and boring. If he does it only once in a blue moon, that will probably be just fine.