Democratic officials in Washington D.C. are criticizing President Joe Biden's approach to his last weeks in office, saying that his lack of involvement has created a feeling of rudderlessness. "He's been so cavalier and selfish about how he approaches the final weeks of the job," a former White House official told POLITICO when discussing the approach.
Biden has largely avoided unscripted appearances or contacts with the press since Kamala Harris lost the presidential election against Donald Trump on November 5. The outlet detailed that across two weeks outside of the U.S., the president spoke a total of seven words to the traveling pool, and noted that he has yet to schedule a press conference like Barack Obama and George W. Bush did before leaving office.
Biden and his team have also been uninvolved in charting a path forward for the Democrats after Trump's victory. The focus is reportedly the transition with the incoming administration and "tending to a few final items meant to burnish his personal legacy." A Democrat has described the current state of affairs as a "total vacuum" resulting from a lack of "leadership coming from the White House."
The argument coming from the Biden camp is twofold: the president's recognition that his opinion might not be welcome among those looking forward, and the belief that he doesn't owe much to them considering how he was pushed from the race. He is also at odds with several members of the party due to his recent decision to grant a wide-ranging pardon to his son Hunter.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Biden is "making every day of this term count" and "leading by example for the sake of American democracy, honoring his campaign promise to respect the will of the voters and provide an orderly transition."
"Democrats in Washington just want to get him and the people around him out the door," concluded the mentioned White House official. "All he's done in the last year has hurt the party every step of the way."
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