Lackluster Election Day is proof ‘people want Democrats to get things done,’ Biden declares in voting postmortem
US President Joe Biden has acknowledged that Democrats’ less-than-stellar performance at the polls – particularly in Virginia – showed that Americans are dissatisfied on a range of issues, but insisted his agenda is a way forward.
In a speech that primarily focused on the rollout of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11 on Wednesday, Biden also fielded questions about his party’s dismal showing in the previous day’s elections, arguing that despite voters’ apparent rejection of Democrats at the polls, what they really wanted was for the party to accelerate the rollout of its agenda.
In order to avoid future electoral failures, Biden said, the administration would have to “get things done.”
“People are upset and uncertain about a lot of things, from Covid to school to jobs to a whole range of things, and the cost of a gallon of gasoline,” Biden explained at the press conference. “People need a little breathing room. They’re overwhelmed.”
“If I’m in the position to pass my Build Back Better bill, I’m in a position where you’re going to see a lot of those things ameliorated quickly and swiftly,” the president continued. “I think we have to just produce results for them, to change their standard of living and give them a little more breathing room.”
He also touted his stances on criminal justice, equal opportunity and “economic issues,” insisting that “each of the elements are overwhelmingly popular” with the electorate – “we [just] have to speak to them and explain them.”
I just think people are at a point and it’s understandable where there’s a whole lot of confusion
The president flatly denied his administration was going to hand out $450,000 to individuals separated from their families at the border under the Donald Trump administration, calling reports on the subject “garbage,” but was otherwise unwilling to let the specter of ‘Trumpism’ be so easily dismissed.
Asked by a reporter whether he still thought “voters really want to hear you talking about Trump” after he had mentioned the former president more than 20 times at a campaign event for Democratic candidate for Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, Biden argued it was necessary, suggesting “the issues [Trump] supports are affecting our lives every day.”
Biden also noted that negotiating Medicare prices downward and reducing the cost of childcare remained at the center of his agenda, adding that these were the platform planks Democrats would continue to “run on.”
Critics on the left, however, have accused Biden of failing to push for progressive causes hard enough. Some suggested that Biden’s apparent willingness to leave such issues as nationwide free community college program out of his mammoth social spending bill might have cost Democrats the elections.
I love how there’s been an unending stream of headlines like this, and yet every corporate media maven employed by Washington Newsletter Presented By Blackstone is still blaming the left for Biden’s shit poll numbers and the election massacre last night. pic.twitter.com/HAOufpq6Df
In a major blow for Biden’s party, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat McAuliffe in the race to become Virginia’s next governor on Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump took the credit for the Republican upstart’s victory, arguing that it was his supporters who made the difference by coming out in force.
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