‘Lamest of the Lame Ducks’: Democrats Slam Disappearing Biden

Disaffected Democrats, including some from within his own administration, are furious with President Joe Biden for shrinking into a political non-entity since his party was walloped in last month’s election, according to multiple reports.

“He’s been so cavalier and selfish about how he approaches the final weeks of the job,” a former White House official told Politico.

The outlet—which spoke to nearly two dozen officials, including current and former White House staffers—reported that, since the Nov. 5 vote, Biden has mostly avoided unscripted events and press questions while neglecting to address policy matters on Capitol Hill and Democratic Party.

Many party officials, Politico reported, no longer even bother to monitor Biden’s daily activities.

His interactions with media have been similarly muted: In two weeks of foreign traveling since the election, Biden uttered a mere seven words to the press pack traveling with him, the outlet said.

The president is yet to hold—or schedule—a post-election press conference, something his predecessors George W. Bush and Barack Obama did before leaving office.

“This is one of the lamest of lame ducks we’ve seen with a Democratic administration,” Usamah Andrabi, a spokesman for the progressive Justice Democrats PAC, told the Wall Street Journal. “A massive missed opportunity.”

One Democratic strategist said Biden’s relative inactivity has allowed President-elect Donald Trump to control the narrative in D.C. and nationally, and that more people would know about the questionable track records of some of Trump’s proposed cabinet nominees “if President Biden spoke about them.”

“The only way to win the war of attention is by going to the voters and explaining things to them, which President Biden has consistently avoided doing,” Waleed Shahid, the strategist, told the Journal.

The rudderless administration has reportedly been felt acutely on Capitol Hill.

“There is no leadership coming from the White House,” an anonymous Democrat close to senior lawmakers told Politico. “There is a total vacuum.”

They added: “In conversations that I’m having, they don’t even mention the president. It’s kind of sad. It feels like Trump is president already.”

The White House defended Biden to the Journal and Politico by saying he is “making every day of this term count.” A spokesperson told Politico he is “leading by example for the sake of American democracy, honoring his campaign promise to respect the will of the voters and provide an orderly transition.”

The White House also pointed to his recent trips to Africa and South America as evidence Biden is still engaged.

Sources also told Politico that Biden is keeping a low profile for two reasons: He doesn’t think there is much clamoring from people to hear from him, and he doesn’t think he owes anything to a party that launched a mutiny against his presidential bid earlier this year and forced him from the race.

Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist, told the outlet Biden’s perceived disappearing act is “a case of just reading the room.”

“If him speaking out doesn’t achieve any actual strategic objectives, there’s no real point in doing it,” she added.