Since the Supreme Court elected to overrule Roe v. Wade, there has been a lot of anger directed towards the Biden administration and its response. The former director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement and top ally of President Biden, Cedric Richmond, says Democratic attacks and criticisms of the Biden White House are “the same foolishness” that got former President Donald Trump elected Business Insider reports.
“The country didn’t elect Joe Biden because they wanted a Democratic Donald Trump to go out there every day and divide the country more,” Richmond, the former director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement and former Biden campaign surrogate.
No administration or elected official should be beyond critique. While the Biden administration could be more forceful in calling to overturn the filibuster to codify abortion protections and various things on their agenda, there are barriers in front of that. This is mainly because of Republican obstructionism and Sens. Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema doing everything in their power not to help Democrats with their thin majority in the Senate. For instance, the Build Back Better Act has been torn up and revised countless times because of Sen. Manchin’s “concerns.” Still, Richmond believes that the same line of anger led to former President Trump’s term in 2016.
“Hillary wasn’t good enough” and “she’s not fighting hard enough” are “what got us Donald Trump. And that got us Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Case closed.” “He saved democracy once by beating a tyrant. He’s doing it again, but he doesn’t do it by beating his chest,” Richmond added.
Despite Richmond’s claims, that hasn’t stopped many Democrat representatives from being unsatisfied with the President’s reaction to crisis as CNN points out. “There’s no fight,” a Democratic member of Congress told CNN. “People understand that a lot of this is out of his hands — but what you want to see is the President out there swinging.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaks to what many Democratic voters feel. Most are aware of the barriers the Biden administration is facing. The Senate needs more seats to get more of his agenda passed. We have a Supreme Court that may be compromised and slanted to appease conservatives. Going into midterms, Khanna said that voters must see the President at least out and fighting for them.
“It’s got to look like you’re taking actions,” Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told CNN about inflation. “Any economist who says the President shouldn’t do anything on the economy should be fired. They can be at a think tank; they can be a professor. But they shouldn’t be at the White House.”