WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden is already facing the daunting task of leading a recently announced $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill through a narrowly divided Congress as the pandemic and its economic consequences grow.
Now Biden will have to do so with President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial that will potentially begin as soon as his first day in office.
The confluence of events amounts to one of the most politically and logistically complex openings to a new administration in modern history, requiring Biden to try to move the country to a post-Trump era even when senators debate the most divisive acts. of Trump.
“It’s going to be incredibly difficult,” former Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat, said. “There’s just so much bandwidth in Congress.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who will play an important role in initiating the Biden agenda through the Senate as chairman of the Budget Committee, stressed how much is on the Democrats ’plate during the first months of Biden.
“We don’t have time to devote a huge amount of time to dismissal, and then we will go to Biden candidates and then we will have to deal with the legislation,” the independent senator said. “We’ll have to move simultaneously in a lot of areas.”
So far, Biden has stayed out of public deliberations over Trump’s ouster to incite a riot. After the House vote, Biden was blunt in denouncing the violent attack on the Capitol that precipitated the indictment, but also said he would work as president to ensure that Americans “Be united as a nation” – and called on the Senate to find a way to deal with its constitutional responsibilities for dismissal while also working on other urgent issues in that nation.
His practical approach to the issue is in line with his stance throughout the campaign and in its transition, even when Trump’s growing controversies have overflowed the news cycle.
Biden devoted his time to supporting Trump’s first ouster in 2019, only expressing his support for the movement weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began the formal effort. Decades earlier, when Richard Nixon was ousted, Biden warned his Senate colleagues to consider the weight of the moment and give Nixon a fair trial.
Capitol Hill Democrats say they want to see Biden largely continue his uniform approach and focus on his agenda, rather than dismissal, once he takes office.
“President-elect Biden has a great job. So let him do his job and let the Senate do its job, ”said Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee in California.
But once the proceedings begin, it is true that Biden will find it harder to avoid them completely, as the trial dominates the news cycle and will force his former opponent to return to the spotlight, even when Biden tries to stay focused on the coronavirus pandemic.
And there’s the possibility that they could further aggravate the already crowded atmosphere on Capitol Hill, politicizing Biden’s agenda and making it harder for him to gain the support of win-win Republican senators.
“Trump’s most ardent supporters will have a chance to attack Democrats, not for their programs and not for their ideas, but as the evil caricature they have come to portray them,” said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Center of Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. “People who could get votes for some of Biden’s legislative agendas will be much more hesitant to keep up with Democratic plans while Democrats are openly vilified.”
Biden was known as a merchant in the Senate and has long relations with many Republican senators after his 36-year career. He has also been in contact with the leadership of both parties during the transition. But, as Virginia Senator Mark Warner points out, there is a risk that the impeachment will poison Biden’s well with those senators who do not know him well.
“At least half the Republican group has never served with Joe Biden,” said Warner, a Democrat. “His ability to navigate with these new members, if his first impression is motivated by what might end up being decided by partisan lines, will make his job difficult.”
For now, Biden remains focused on his agenda.
On Thursday, announcing its COVID-19 relief package, he stressed that he hopes to work with lawmakers on both sides and expressed optimism that, despite the $ 1.9 trillion price, “we are ready to do so. ho “.
“I know what I just described doesn’t come cheap, but we just can’t afford not to do what I propose,” Biden said.
And Capitol Hill Democrats are also moving forward and refusing to accept the prospect that dismissal will deter them from their legislative goals.
“What the Senate will have to do is show the world that it can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Sanders said.