Running to unseat then-President Donald Trump, Joe Biden billed himself as a master negotiator, a Senate veteran who could reach across the aisle. But Biden’s efforts are under scrutiny as lawmakers inside his party threaten to torpedo his sweeping legislative plans.
“He’s open to having visitors. He’s open to going places,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Thursday, adding that Biden had also been working the phones.
The president spent 36 years in the upper chamber, and as the son of a car salesman has argued that he knows how to close a deal. He is surrounded by a team of longtime Washington aides, earning plaudits for their frequent availability and presence on Capitol Hill.
“There’s no one better at doing this than Biden,” said Jim Kessler, Third Way’s executive vice president for policy and the former legislative and policy director to Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader.
And nor are liberals complaining, even as they threaten to vote down Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal.
“Let me just say that [Biden’s] outreach to Congress has been extraordinary, including [Steve Ricchetti] and [White House chief of staff Ron Klain], who will text you back in an hour,” tweeted California Rep. Ro Khanna. “This idea that they’re not corresponding or reaching out to the House is just factually wrong.”
But how the deals land on Biden’s desk is still unclear, as significant obstacles remain, with Democrats sharply split over a top-line number for the reconciliation bill. While many in the party support a $3.5 trillion spending plan, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a critical centrist Democratic vote, argued to limit the cost.
On Sept. 29, Manchin capped Democrats’ hopes of scoring his vote for the $3.5 trillion of social welfare proposals that “spend for the sake of spending.” And on Thursday, a leaked document revealed his call for capping the cost at $1.5 trillion.
Biden’s advisers told Axios that the president is exerting “LBJ-style” pressure on the holdouts, “making his case on merits, loyalty, politics — and arm twisting.”
And the White House has defended Biden’s efforts, arguing that he is available as needed.
But Democrats are still left wondering where the president comes down on his most significant legislative effort to date.
Democrats in the House “need to know exactly where the president stands and what the president wants them to do, and they’re getting mixed signals depending on who you talk to,” Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell told MSNBC on Wednesday. “What is it that the president wants? Nobody can even answer that question.”
Former senior White House and Senate aides said it’s one thing for a president’s aides to exert pressure on lawmakers and another for the president to work out the differences himself.
Capitol Hill veterans said there was little evidence of harsher tactics underway.
“Let me know when either Sens. Manchin and/or Sinema are seen walking around the Capitol with their arm in a cast,” said Jim Manley, a veteran Democratic strategist and former top aide to Sens. Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid.
“I wouldn’t know the level of physical contact and the torque-per-square-foot on the elbow, but Lyndon did a lot of listening and cajoling as well,” Kessler said. “This is Biden’s strong suit.”
And a velvet-glove approach may yield better results with lawmakers willing to buck the president.
“If there was a time when Lyndon Johnson-style tactics worked, that time has long come and gone,” Manley said. “They’d be rebuffed.”
Still, said Manley, more could be done.
“Everyone’s still in the process of taking hostages, and it’s got to stop,” he said.
Lawmakers have echoed this frustration, arguing that Biden could do more to align members.
“He needs to get more involved,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, said this week.
Asked whether the public should expect to hear from the president if the Senate passes one of the items on this week’s heavy slate, a temporary funding bill to avert a government shutdown, Psaki left the possibility on the table.
“We’ll see,” she said.
