Democratic House and Senate Campaign Chairs Reportedly Steamed That Biden Has Not Met With Them in 7 Months
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President Joe Biden is under fire from Congressional Democrats who fear a disorganized White House political operation is hampering their 2022 midterm reelection efforts, according to an extensive report Wednesday by CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere.
Dovere notes that in June, seven months ago, Biden told both Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who’s in charge of Democratic Senate campaigns, that he wanted to meet with them to discuss the midterms.
“Maloney’s staff eagerly followed up. So did Peters’. Then they followed up again,” Dovere reports. “And again. Seven months later, there are still no meetings on the books.”
As Democrats, reading the same dismal poll numbers as the rest of the country, head into the midterm elections in November fears of a “red wave” abound.
“It’s hard for me to believe that the President knows how little his political shop is doing to support Democratic majorities in the Senate and the House. All of us believe that the President would be shocked to learn how little the White House political team is doing,” CNN quoted a “senior Democratic elected official” as saying.
The article went on the highlight logistical issues regarding coordination between Congressional Democrats and the White House.
“Jen O’Malley Dillon, who ran Biden’s general election campaign, now serves as the main conduit in the West Wing for political decisions, but many in touch with her complain of a bottleneck that slows responses, if they come at all,” Dovere writes, adding that, “Steve Ricchetti, the trusted Biden aide who sits a few steps away from the Oval Office, is the official point person for conversations with Congress. But Cedric Richmond, director of public engagement, is doing a lot of the outreach to his former peers in the House.”
A Democratic House member, “requesting anonymity to speak candidly about their frustration,” told Dovere that frustration is building among Democrats as they question, “Who is in charge? Who is running the thing?”
Dovere notes, however, that Democrats are not only frustrated with logistics and organization in terms of the political operation at the White House, they are also concerned about strategy:
Senior Democrats, including some White House aides, describe a West Wing lacking both a political strategy and the discipline to execute one. Focus groups are giving party operatives nightmares. Biden is coming across as old and absent, they say. Real and perceived fumbles play into deep fears that he’s not up to the job and that Democrats are incompetent.
Dovere reports that “Biden knows he has a problem” and that he reads the same poll numbers as everyone else.
“ People have written off Biden before, like when his primary campaign was coming apart before his resounding win in South Carolina,” Dovere argues, offering Biden a bit of hope. ”But this isn’t just about other Democrats’ political prospects: the states with the most competitive races this November also happen to be those that will decide the next presidential election.”
