Democrats accuse President Joe Biden, 82, of “quietly quitting,” a tendency of Generation Z to gradually disengage from a job rather than quit.
Biden only has one month and two days left in his term and has reduced his public appearances.
He has also answered fewer questions from the press and has stopped criticizing his now successor, President-elect Donald Trump, whom he warned during the campaign cycle that he was a “threat to democracy.”
“It’s just strange that, you know, he’s talked about Donald Trump being an existential threat to democracy for so long,” said Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor, who on Tuesday’s podcast episode made the joke of “quietly give up.”
“Yes, that seems to be what he’s doing,” said Vietor, a former Obama aide.
Vietor and the other Pod Save America hosts were arguing a recent Politico article which explored why Biden had virtually disappeared from public view.
“There is no leadership coming from the White House,” a Democrat close to top lawmakers complained to the publication. “There is a total emptiness.”
Another source added: “In the conversations I have, they don’t even mention the president.” It seems that Trump is already president.”
President Joe Biden is being accused of “quietly resigning” as he has decreased the number of public appearances and has barely spoken to the press. On Wednesday he attended mass in Delaware to commemorate the anniversary of the deaths of his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi.
While Trump has largely remained holed up at Mar-a-Lago during the transition, he spent more than an hour taking questions from the press Monday from the Florida property’s ornate living room.
And while he hasn’t had Cabinet candidates walk the lobby of Trump Tower or pose for photos in front of his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, as he did eight years ago during this term, he has made some high-profile public appearances , including that of the Army on Saturday. Navy Game and a recent trip to Paris to visit the renovated Notre Dame Cathedral and meet with world leaders.
Biden, on the other hand, has not yet scheduled a post-election press conference, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not commit the president to the traditional exchange of views.
During his two recent trips abroad (to Peru for APEC and Brazil for the G20 and then a separate trip to Angola), Biden said a total of seven words to the press, Politico reported.
His lack of commitment meant that the top news stories out of South America included a viral video falsely suggesting he had gotten lost in the Amazon rainforest and reports of how he missed a photo of the G20 group, chatting in palm trees with the Canadian Prime Minister and the Italian Prime Minister. Instead, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
On Wednesday, Biden was holed up at his home in Wilmington, making a midweek trip to Delaware to attend religious services to mark the anniversary of the tragic car crash deaths of his first wife Neilia and daughter Naomi in 1972.
Sources told Politico Biden that “Biden’s reticence is rooted in two factors: Biden’s own recognition that few are eager to hear from him, and his persistent personal belief that he doesn’t owe much more to a party than unceremoniously pushed him aside.”
During two recent trips abroad, Biden said only seven words to reporters. In that void, one story that went viral was the false narrative that the 82-year-old man was lost in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
Despite being the country’s oldest president and polls showing (for months) that Americans had major concerns about aging, Biden announced his re-election bid on April 25, 2023 after Trump announced his own candidacy historically early.
Trump entered the 2024 race on Nov. 14, 2022, a week after the midterm elections concluded.
Biden believed that since he beat Trump once, he could do it again.
Those dreams were shattered after his disastrous performance in the June debate in Atlanta, and Biden bowed out on July 21 after Democratic heavyweights, including Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, told him it was all over.
In the weeks before the election, his poor poll numbers made him a liability for Vice President Kamala Harris, and the campaign officials she inherited from Biden kept the president at arm’s length.
But now, with weeks to go, Democrats are once again waiting for Biden to do… something.
“There are all these things that could be done that would really be historic and important,” Vietor said. —And when politics doesn’t get in your way, why not review the tape?