By AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has been notably quiet because the Democrats’ gut-wrenching defeat on the polls.
After warning voters for years {that a} Donald Trump win could be calamitous for American democracy, Biden has gone largely silent on his considerations about what lays forward for America and he has but to substantively mirror on why Democrats have been decisively defeated up and down the poll.
His solely public dialogue of the end result of the election got here in a roughly six-minute speech within the Rose Backyard two days after the election, when he urged folks to “see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans” and to “bring down the temperature.” Since then, there’s been hardly a public peep — together with over the course of Biden’s six-day go to to South America that concluded on Tuesday night. His solely public feedback through the journey got here throughout transient remarks earlier than conferences with authorities officers and a climate-related speech throughout a go to to the Amazon.
At a fragile second within the U.S. — and for the world — Biden’s silence could also be leaving a vacuum. However his public reticence has additionally underscored a brand new actuality: America and the remainder of the world is already transferring on.
“His race is over. His day is done,” stated David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser within the Obama-Biden White Home. “It’s up to a new generation of leaders to chart the path forward, as I’m sure they will.”
Edward Frantz, a historian on the College of Indianapolis, stated Biden’s relative silence within the aftermath of the Republican win is in some methods comprehensible. Nonetheless, he argued, there’s good purpose for Biden to be extra lively in making an attempt to form the narrative throughout his ultimate months in workplace.
“The last time a president left office so irrelevant or rejected by the populace was Jimmy Carter,” stated Frantz, referring to the final one-term Democrat within the White Home. “History has allowed for the great rehabilitation of Carter, in part, because of all he did in his post-presidency. At 82, I’m not sure Biden has the luxury of time. The longer he waits, the longer he can’t find something to say, he risks ceding shaping his legacy at least in how he’s seen in the near term.”
Biden’s allies say the president — like Democrats writ giant — is privately processing the election defeat, stressing that it’s barely been two weeks since Trump’s win. Biden hasn’t been vocally introspective about his position within the loss, and nonetheless has quite a bit to unpack, they stated.
Biden, in his speech after the election, stated: “Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I’ve said many times you can’t love your country only when you win.”
Biden’s aides say the president’s insistence on following electoral traditions — guaranteeing an orderly transition and welcoming Trump to the White Home — is particularly necessary as a result of Trump flouted them 4 years in the past, when he actively tried to overturn the outcomes of the election he misplaced and helped incite a mob that rioted on the U.S. Capitol.
However that doesn’t imply Biden isn’t privately stewing over the outcomes whilst he doesn’t say a lot in public.
White Home spokesman Andrew Bates stated Biden believes that it’s “critical to respect the will of the voters by providing an orderly transition and peaceful transfer of power. President Biden was honest with the American people about the stakes for democracy, and his views are unchanged — which is all the more reason to uphold his principles and lead by example.”
And notably this week, Biden left it to allies Emmanuel Macron of France and Justin Trudeau of Canada to supply public explanations of his crucial resolution to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of longer-range American weapons in its warfare with Russia.
Biden, for whom Ukraine has been a serious focus of his presidency, had lengthy been involved about escalation ought to the U.S. loosen up restrictions, and was cognizant of how Moscow would possibly reply had he gave the impression to be thumping his chest at President Vladimir Putin. However Ukraine has additionally been a sensitive topic due to Trump, who has claimed he’d finish the warfare instantly and has lengthy espoused admiration for Putin.
The GOP victory — Trump gained each the favored vote and Electoral School rely, and Republicans gained management of Congress — comes because the president and Vice President Kamala Harris have each sounded dire alarms over what a Trump presidency would possibly imply. Harris referred to as Trump a fascist. Biden advised People the very basis of the nation was at stake, and he stated world leaders, too, have been involved.
“Every international meeting I attend,” Biden stated after a visit in September to Germany, “they pull me aside — one leader after the other, quietly — and say, ‘Joe, he can’t win. My democracy is at stake.’”
His voice rising, Biden then requested if “America walks away, who leads the world? Who? Name me a country.”
Maybe a very powerful second of his time in South America was a gathering with Chinese language President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation summit in Peru. His public feedback at the beginning of that assembly have been notably extra backward trying than Xi’s, the chief of America’s strongest geopolitical competitor.
“I’m very proud of the progress we’ve both made together,” stated Biden, fondly recalling a go to close to the Tibetan plateau with Xi years in the past. He added, “We haven’t always agreed, but our conversations have always been candid and always been frank.”
Xi, in contrast, appeared previous Biden in his remarks and sought to ship a transparent message to Trump.
“China is ready to work with the new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation, and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi stated, whereas urging American management to make a “wise choice” because it manages the connection.
The president additionally appeared in no temper to have interaction with reporters all through his time in South America. Since Election Day, he’s solely briefly acknowledged media questions twice.
In a kind of exchanges, he responded to a query from an Israeli reporter about whether or not he believed he may get a cease-fire deal in Gaza accomplished earlier than he leaves workplace with a sarcastic reply: “Do you think you can keep from getting hit in the head by a camera behind you?”
The terse solutions and silence haven’t stopped reporters from making an attempt to have interaction him.
Over the course of his six-day journey, he ignored questions on his resolution on offering antipersonnel mines to Ukraine, reflections on the election, and even why he’s not answering questions from the press.
As he acquired able to board Air Drive One in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday to make his approach residence, one reporter even tried endearing herself to the president by pointing to Biden’s 82nd birthday on Wednesday.
“Mr. President, happy early birthday! For your birthday, will you talk to us, sir?” the reporter stated. “As a gift to the press will you please talk to us? Mr. President! President Biden, please! We haven’t heard from you all trip!”
Biden acquired on the airplane with out answering.
Initially Printed: November 21, 2024 at 10:11 AM PST
