WASHINGTON (AP) – Inside the White House, President Joe Biden presided over a centered launch of his administration, using his early days in office to abruptly break with his predecessor while signing executive orders that meant a showy display of action to meet the historical challenges inherited.
But outside the gates of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., there are signs everywhere that these crises are as deep and intractable as ever. Coronavirus pandemic rises, economic upheavals, and Republicans in Congress have shown objections to many of Biden’s plans.
Biden seeks to start his first 100 days in office with action and symbolism to reassure a divided and tired audience that help is ready. He also knows that what a president can do on his own is limited, so he calls for Congress to act while being outspoken with Americans that dark days lie ahead.
“The crisis is not improving. It is deepening, “Biden said on Friday about the impact of the pandemic. “It simply came to our notice then. The virus increases. Families go hungry. People are at risk of being evicted again. Job loss increases. We have to act ”.
“The conclusion is this: we are 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 aimed at consolidating American democracy itself.
He was sworn in just before noon on Wednesday in front of a Capitol that was still scarred by the insurgency that took place just two weeks earlier and aimed to stop Biden’s rise to power. The violence highlighted the fragile nature of the peaceful transfer of power and led to the historic second removal of Donald Trump.
Biden resisted calls to move the inauguration to a safer indoor environment. It was intended to preserve the usual opening traps as a sign that normalcy could be achieved even though there were signs everywhere that things were far from normal: a military presence that resembled an area of normalcy. war, guests on the dais wearing masks, one with 200,000 American flags defending the American people who were asked to stay away because of the pandemic.
Biden was clear and direct about the confluence of crises facing the nation. More than 410,000 Americans have lost their lives due to the pandemic, millions are out of work and the aftermath of a summer of racial justice is still being felt.
“You can hear that sigh of collective relief that Trump has disappeared, but we don’t have time for relief because of the cascading crises,” said Eddie Glaude Jr., chair of the University of African American Studies department. Princeton. “We do not want to assume that the election of Biden will solve everything. The breadth of the problems is immense and the question for us is whether we answer on a large scale.
Changes in the White House have been rapid.
After Trump’s departure, his last troops withdrew and a deep cleanup began. The White House had been the site of multiple outbreaks of COVID-19 and, in a physical manifestation of a new approach to the virus, plastic shields were placed on desks and a lot of new employees were told to work. from home.
New images were hung on the walls of the west wing and the oval office changed quickly. Behind was a painting by Andrew Jackson and the Diet Coke button on the desk; came images of Robert Kennedy and Cesar Chávez. But the most important symbol, the clearest break from the previous administration, came from the president himself.
When Biden sat down at the Resolute desk to sign his first batch of executive orders on Wednesday, he was wearing a mask. Trump had resisted wearing one, only wearing it from time to time, and instead made the masked suit a polarizing political issue.
Biden urged all Americans to wear a mask for the next 100 days and used his platform to model the same behavior, one of several ways he tried to change the tone of the presidency during his early days. .
Daily press meetings returned, absent from allegations of “fake news” that only marked sporadic reports in the Trump era. Biden held a virtual oath for hundreds of White House officials, telling them to treat each other with respect or to dismiss him, a marked change from the disputed and targeted Trump West Wing rivalry. Calls to leaders in Canada and Mexico were made without drama.
The executive actions Biden signed during the week were a mix of concrete and symbolic actions aimed at undoing the heart of Trump’s legacy. Biden stopped the construction of the border wall, rejoined the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, and strengthened the means for vaccine production.
But the strength of the executive actions is evident compared to the $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package he called for in Congress. Biden has not ruled out asking Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, DN.Y., to push for it through tactics that only require democratic support. But the president, who spent decades in the Senate, hoped to persuade Republicans to support the measure.
“Relying on executive action makes sense at first, you can start doing things and show momentum immediately without waiting in Congress,” said Robert Gibbs, former press secretary to President Barack Obama. “It simply came to our notice then. As it was for us in 2009, the change does not come overnight.
“Everything he inherited will probably get worse before he sees an improvement,” Gibbs said. “One thing you learn on January 20th is that you suddenly own it.”
Only two candidates for the Cabinet were confirmed over the weekend, to the frustration of the White House. But with Friday night’s announcement that Trump’s impeachment trial won’t begin until the week of Feb. 8, Biden aides are optimistic the Senate would confirm more sooner rather than later.
The trial is posed as an unwanted distraction for Biden’s team. But while Trump will cast a shadow over the White House, Biden’s aides have noted that the former president has received far less attention now that his Twitter account has disappeared. They have expressed confidence that the Senate can balance the removal processes with the confirmations of the Cabinet and the consideration of the COVID-19 relief bill.
Biden has made it clear that leading the nation through the pandemic will be his main task and some Republicans believe Trump’s implosion could create an opening to work across the aisle in a relief deal.
“There’s a very narrow permit structure for Republicans in Congress who want to move from the Trump era and want to establish their own political identities,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser to the presidential campaign. 2012 by Mitt Romney. Romney is now a Utah senator.
“There’s an old saying,‘ Make the most important thing the main one. ’And the White House in Biden knows that’s the main thing,” Madden said. “If they can improve the response to the pandemic in the next 100 days “They can move on to other priorities and have the capital for legislative struggles. But they have to get it right.”
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