Facing predictions that Republicans will return to power on Capitol Hill, President Joe Biden on Thursday sought to rally Democrats behind...
Facing predictions that Republicans will return to power on Capitol Hill, President Joe Biden on Thursday sought to rally Democrats behind what he said were the successes of his administration.
For the mid-term elections this year, Biden said Democrats need to persuade inflation-saddled Americans that all is well.
“If we don’t do that, don’t do that, it’s going to be a sad, sad two years. Think about Republicans if they controlled the Congress these last two years,” he said at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting in Washington, D.C., according to The Hill.
He said Democrats have a great record to run on.
“I believe we have a record to be incredibly proud of … a message that resonates: Build a better America. Now we have to do the work,” Biden said.
Biden then offered his recipe for success, according to The Washington Post.
“Now what we have to do is we have to sell it with confidence, clarity, conviction and repetition,” he said.
“If we do that, we’re going to keep the House and keep the Senate and add seats.”
Emma Vaughn, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said Biden’s “failed agenda” is an albatross around the neck of every Democratic candidate.
“Democrats up-and-down the ballot are in lockstep with Biden and will be held accountable for his failures in November,” Vaughn said.
Biden, who at one time indicated that a small incursion into Ukrainian territory by Russia would not trigger much in the way of punishments, said the invasion was a good issue to focus on in a campaign because NATO has been unified.
On a day when federal data showed inflation at 7.9 percent, the highest rate since 1982, Biden continued to lay blame for high gasoline prices on Russian leader Vladimir Putin, calling it “Putin’s price hike,” according to The Hill.
Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen was irate over the two talking points.
“Biden is refusing to send Polish MiG fighter jets to Ukraine to try to stop Russia from carrying out atrocities such as the bombing Wednesday of a maternity hospital. But he is willing to take political advantage of the suffering of the Ukrainian people, and use it as political cover for his massive domestic policy failures,” Thiessen wrote.
“Instead of the ‘Putin price hike,’ his administration should call it the ‘Biden weakness tax.
“It is no coincidence that Putin invaded Ukraine just months after Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which projected weakness on the world stage. Putin took his measure of Biden and did not believe his threats to impose severe consequences on Russia if it invaded Ukraine,” Thiessen wrote.
Biden’s quest to get out from under blame on the issue was called into question by The Wall Street Journal, which headlined an editorial “It’s Joe Biden’s inflation” and noted that “He blames Vladimir Putin, but his policies and the Federal Reserve are at fault.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday noted that gasoline prices have risen 38 percent over the past year, according to the New York Post.
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