(Headline USA) President Joe Biden claimed Wednesday the Democrats’ setbacks in Tuesday’s elections underscored that the party needs to “produce for the American people.”
However, the 79-year-old leader pushed back against the notion that the off-year election results were a repudiation of his presidency, even as chants like “Let’s Go Brandon” and the more obscene variant, “F*** Joe Biden,” make their way into popular culture.
Biden suggested that his inability to get Congress to pass a $3.5 trillion spending package ahead of the voting didn’t make a difference, although some members of his own party—including failed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe—had urged its swift passage for that very reason.
On Tuesday, McAuliffe lost to first-time Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin in a state that Biden won by 10 percentage points a year ago.
“I think we should have passed it before Election Day,” Biden said. ”But I’m not sure that I would have been able to change” people’s minds in Republican-leaning areas either way.
He added that, “people are upset and uncertain about a lot of things” including the pandemic, the job market and the price of a gallon of gasoline.
All of those are the direct result of the Biden administration’s failed policies and its miscalculation to push a radical leftist agenda after falsely promising a return to pre-pandemic normalcy and bipartisan civility.
Biden made the comments to reporters after delivering remarks to highlight what he said was a “great day” in the fight against coronavirus pandemic as children 5 to 11 became eligible to begin receiving the preventive vaccine.
However, that, too, marks an unwelcome development as many adults continue to walk off in the midst of authoritarian vaccine mandates, further depressing the already anemic economy.
Biden returned to Washington early Wednesday from Europe to the news Republicans had swept Virginia—which had previously been dominated by Democrats.
Meanwhile, Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy barely eked out a victory in an unexpectedly close race for reelection in New Jersey, a state Biden won by 16 percentage points.
Before leaving Glasgow on Tuesday, Biden made the case that “the off year is always unpredictable” and that he had seen no evidence that whether “my agenda passed or not is going to have any real impact on winning or losing” the two governor’s races.
Biden’s polling has plummeted in recent weeks, something he blames on coronavirus fatigue among the American public, despite the fact that his administration continues to scaremonger and milk the health restrictions to impose control and keep the population on edge.
At the same time, rising prices and supply issues are also impacting American households and the political mood.
But the president said those drags could be in the rearview mirror long before midterm elections a year from now if Democrats come together on his agenda.
“If I’m able to pass, sign into law, my Build Back Better initiative, I’m in a position where you’re going to see a lot of those things ameliorated quickly and swiftly,” Biden said.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
