Decoding | Biden is in an awkward position

(New York) With or without a Democratic majority in the Senate, Joe Biden should have a rough time during the second half of his term. In all likelihood, he will face at least one chamber of Congress that will seek to undermine and perhaps even end his presidency.

Richard Hito
special cooperation

In the wake of the midterm elections, that prospect does not seem to bother the Democratic president, who has once again stated his intention to seek a second term in 2024.

It must be said that this election produced a rare result in the political history of the United States: instead of imposing severe sanctions on the ruling party in the White House, as is customary, they suffered a defeat whose president was frankly bragging. .

Joe Biden said Wednesday afternoon at a White House news conference, after calling the midterm elections a “good day for democracy” and America.

“Democrats had a good night,” he added, acknowledging voter frustration with the economy and inflation.

We lost fewer House seats than any other Democratic president in his first test election in the last 40 years. And we’ve had the best midterm elections for Conservatives since 1986.

Joe Biden, President of the United States

This lukewarm electoral verdict comes down to an unusual fact: No media has yet attributed to a party the majority of the House or Senate, more than 36 hours after most polling stations closed.

Everything indicates, however, that Republicans will net a gain of at least five seats they need to win a majority in the House. And even if that majority is much shorter than what their party’s supporters have declared, they will be able to use it to double down on investigations into the Biden administration, to engage in an arm wrestling over government spending or to initiate impeachment proceedings against the government. The president or any other senior government official, which was promised by the most extreme of them.

Clearly, Joe Biden will have an easier time if the Democrats retain control of the Senate, which remains a possibility.

Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona

Majorities in the Senate are played in three states: Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona. Pending the final results of this very tough election, the Republicans are already guaranteed to fill 49 of the 100 seats in the Senate, compared to 48 for the Democrats.

In Georgia, a second round of voting is scheduled for December 6 between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and former soccer player Herschel Walker. Because none of them crossed the threshold of 50% of the vote needed to be elected in the first round. With 95% of the votes counted, Warnock collected 49.4% against Walker’s 48.5%.

In Arizona, Democratic Senator Mike Kelly led his Republican challenger, Blake Masters, by 5 percentage points with 70% of the vote counted. In Nevada, Republican candidate Adam Laxalt led Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto by 3 percentage points after 78% of the vote counted.

If Kelly defends his seat in Arizona and Laxalt takes Masto in Nevada, the Senate majority will be determined again in Georgia, as happened after the 2020 election.

It could be several days before a majority winner is confirmed in the House, due to vote counting by mail, and weeks before a majority winner is known in the Senate, due to the second round in Georgia.

An outstretched hand from Biden

While refusing to concede the advantage to Republicans in the battle for the House of Representatives, Joe Biden reached out to the opposition during his press conference.

“Regardless of the eventual outcome of this election, I am ready to work with my fellow Republicans,” he said.

However, he has indicated that he will veto any bill aimed at banning abortion nationwide, a major issue in the midterm elections.

The powers that Joe Biden will be able to exercise during his final two years in office will depend in large part on which party controls the Senate. If the Republicans win a majority, they will be able to block all nominations for the president as a judge, ambassador or senior official in his administration.

This systematic ban could also extend to any legislative initiative the president would like to propose.

Thus, Joe Biden will turn to the tradition of Barack Obama when the latter found himself facing a Congress with a Republican majority. In particular, he could use his pen to pass actions by executive order or to veto Republican bills.

He can take advantage of the prestige of his position to launch his campaign for the 2024 presidential elections. He indicated in a press conference that he would make a final decision on this issue early next year.

Trump criticized

One of his potential rivals, Donald Trump, came under much criticism the day after an election meeting as members of his party deemed his influence harmful. About to retire, Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who won his Democratic seat Jon Fetterman, said the GOP should distance itself from Trump after the election “disaster” in his state. The candidates are supported by the former president, including Dr^s Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano lost the crucial Senate and gubernatorial elections there.

Donald Trump has not responded directly to his criticism. However, he indirectly attacked one of the big winners of the GOP midterm elections, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose presidential ambitions seem to annoy him to no end.

“Now that the elections in Florida are over, and everything has gone well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 million more votes in Florida than Ron Dee this year, 5.7 million versus 4.6 million? It’s a simple question,” Written for the Truth Social.