‘The reality is that the former vice president is in a terrible position in the sense that he doesn’t have a platform…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Congressional Democrats are struggling to show voters that they are also leading the fight against the coronavirus pandemic as President Donald Trump takes the lead and directs the country’s efforts.
Many Democrats fear that Trump’s leadership throughout this crisis will be more impactful in the long-run. As a result House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are scrambling to find ways to compete.
Pelosi launched a special House committee last week to oversee Congress’s coronavirus spending, and Schumer continues to demand that Trump appoint a spending and distribution “czar” of Schumer’s choice.
Pelosi and Schumer have also turned their attention to the next economic recovery package. Pelosi has already suggested that Democrats will try to use Congress’s next action to push the Democratic Party’s agenda, floating the idea of a partial repeal of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Dozens of Democratic congressmen have sent letters to the Trump administration in an attempt to publicly hold Trump accountable on various issues. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is even trying to create a 9/11-style bipartisan commission to investigate why Trump’s administration was “unprepared” for the coronavirus pandemic.
But for the most part, Pelosi, Schumer, and the other congressional Democrats are relying on the media to maintain a national presence. Pelosi has appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden—currently considered to be the presumptive nominee—has also been making the rounds from his basement in Delaware.
Biden is in a much worse position than Pelosi and Schumer, according to liberal pundits. The congressional Democrats can at least use congressional spending and oversight to their advantage.
Biden, on the other hand, has been largely sidelined and unable to speak without blundering his way through an interview. The result has been “high” levels of “frustration” among the Biden campaign, according to MSNBC’s John Heilemann.
“The reality is that the former vice president is in a terrible position in the sense that he doesn’t have a platform,” Heilemann said last week. “He doesn’t have real standing in this crisis.”