Some Democrats are fuming about President Biden apparently handing off the reins early to President-elect Donald Trump who has held several meetings recently with foreign leaders, as the 82-year-old seems content to retreat from the frontlines of policymaking and resist questions from the press about his legacy.
“He’s been so cavalier and selfish about how he approaches the final weeks of the job,” a former White House official carped to Politico.
“There is no leadership coming from the White House,” another Democrat close to senior lawmakers griped to the outlet. “There is a total vacuum.”
“In conversations that I’m having, they don’t even mention the president. It’s kind of sad,” the source added. “It feels like Trump is president already.”
Still, other Democrats are trying to cozy up to Trump before he enters the Oval Office, with some governors spilling last weekend that they’d be happy to partner with the Republican commander in chief on some items for his second administration’s agenda.
The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) post-election meeting this weekend in Beverly Hills, Calif., expressed points of agreement with the incoming president, Semafor reported, with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy saying he “invited” Trump to “cut the ribbon” on a project he approved during his first term.
North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein also said the state would cooperate with Trump if his administration mobilized troops to deport criminal migrants.
Since Vice President Kamala Harris’ drubbing on Nov. 5, Biden has stayed out of the limelight and spoken mostly at events with prepared remarks, while ignoring questions about the state of the Democratic Party, how to counter a Republican trifecta next Congress or Trump’s resounding electoral victory.
The president-elect even beat his predecessor to issuing a statement about the fall of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s government, urging America to not intervene in an early Sunday morning Truth Social post.
“Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer,” the once and future president said. “They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever. … There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin.”
Nearly 12 hours later, Biden said of the toppling of Assad: “The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice. It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country.”
Trump, 78, was also front and center this weekend as he schmoozed with world leaders in Paris for the grand reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
He posed for a firm grip and grin with French President Emmanuel Macron and later sat between him and his wife Briggite at the ceremony in the cathedral.
He also spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about brokering a peace with Russia, while currying favor with other dignitaries like the UK’s Prince William and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
First lady Jill Biden attended the Notre Dame event in Biden’s stead, where she even had a friendly chat with Trump.
Trump has further reached out from Mar-a-Lago to leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who flew to the president-elect’s West Palm Beach, Fla., estate for a meeting on Ukraine, tariffs and their shared border last month.
Biden, who has also ducked the press since granting a sweeping pardon of his son Hunter last week, chose to forgo the international event following an earlier G20 summit in Brazil and brief jaunt to Angola — where he was briefly caught catnapping while meeting with regional leaders about a US-funded railway project in Africa.
Biden and Trump have both expressed their intent on a peaceful transition of power.
But for some Democrats who are concerned with the incoming president’s cabinet picks, Biden has not been present — or aggressive opposed to Republican’s agenda — enough.
“We should be less hobbled and more spurred. We should be vocal, pushing back against these nominees who are nothing but a disaster in the making,” Washington’s Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal.
“This is one of the lamest of lame ducks we’ve seen with a Democratic administration,” said Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for the progressive group Justice Democrats, per the WSJ. “A massive missed opportunity.”