Biden's laid-back style helped him win the White House but may be starting to wear thin
CNN
President Joe Biden's brand of crisis leadership is becoming rather familiar -- and even a little stale.
Whether it's over a grim turn in the coronavirus pandemic, yet another roadblock to his congressional agenda, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan or a supply chain crunch that's strangling the economy, Biden's public response is often similar -- and it's keeping him out of sight of everyday Americans whose support he needs to muster his agenda through Congress. He has fallen into a pattern of delivering short, televised speeches from one of the state rooms in the White House or elsewhere in the presidential complex.
After his $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan and $3.5 trillion spending plan failed to make it through Congress earlier this month, Biden vowed to travel the country to sell Americans on his vision. He has made several recent trips -- to Michigan to tout large-scale investment in the economy and to Illinois to push his spending plans and vaccine mandates -- and he's off to Connecticut on Friday. But there's no sign of a barnstorming coast-to-coast presidential tour or a relentless daily coordinated messaging push to shake Democrats out of the schism over his agenda that is raising doubts about the party's capacity to lead. As he tries to coax two moderate Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to deal with frustrated House progressives, the President has failed to do what would help him most: drum up popular support needed to make a deal.
When prosecutors make their final pitch Tuesday to a New York jury for why they should convict Donald Trump of a slew of business crimes, they’ll face the burdensome task of weaving together weeks of testimony and evidence they say proves the former president committed felonies to help his 2016 campaign.