President Biden was in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday morning, watching on video monitors as Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel. The wider war in the Middle East, which Mr. Biden had spent much of his presidency trying to avert, had arrived.
But so had another crisis, closer to home.
Even as he discussed military options with his foreign policy advisers, a White House staffer handed him a succession of notes about Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm to strike the U.S. mainland in nearly two decades.
The time Mr. Biden spent inside the ultrasecure facility that morning, described by a senior administration official who asked for anonymity to discuss a confidential meeting, was a vivid example of the final months of Mr. Biden’s presidency. Even as he yields much of the spotlight to Vice President Kamala Harris, he is finishing out his term managing an array of major crises, all of them playing out more or less simultaneously.
It is a reminder that even as Mr. Biden recedes from view, some of the most consequential days of his presidency may lie ahead. And no occupant of the White House has ever had the luxury of focusing on one crisis at a time.
Aside from the conflict in the Middle East and the catastrophic hurricane, Mr. Biden is dealing with war in Ukraine; Russia threatening nuclear escalation; a short-lived but serious dockworkers’ strike; and former President Donald J. Trump within striking distance of the White House once again. (Not to mention fears of foreign election interference and the prospect of an October Surprise — the list goes on.)
“It’s unusual,” Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, said of the chaotic nature of Mr. Biden’s final months as president. Mr. Begala recalled Colin Powell’s comment during his last national security briefing to then-President Ronald Reagan: “The world is quiet today.”
Mr. Biden’s national security adviser may not have a moment like that. “Jake Sullivan is not going to President Biden’s Oval Office and saying, ‘The world is quiet today,’” Mr. Begala said.
With just weeks to go before the election, Mr. Trump and his allies have seized on the various crises to claim that the world has grown more turbulent under Mr. Biden.
Senator JD Vance, Mr. Trump’s running mate, said during the vice-presidential debate earlier this week, “If we get better leadership in the White House, if we get Donald Trump back in the White House, the American dream is going to be attainable once again.”
But Democrats say the current moment is a prime opportunity to draw a contrast between the governing styles of Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden — and, by extension, Ms. Harris.
On Friday, Mr. Biden made a surprise appearance at the White House briefing, where he spoke about the range of issues on his desk at the moment — including the strong labor market in the United States, the conflict in the Middle East and the port strike.
“We averted what could have become a major crisis for the country,” Mr. Biden said of the strike that began on Tuesday and ended Thursday. “I was determined to avert a crisis at this moment because it’s a critical moment. If we didn’t do this now we would have a problem.”
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris helped secure the port deal, have “relentlessly” fought for communities affected by the hurricane and stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Israel while powering the economy.
The president has, at times, shown flashes of impatience.
When Mr. Biden was asked about the attacks from Mr. Trump and his allies, including the false claim that Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia had been struggling to reach the president, he bristled.
“I don’t care about what he says about me, but I care what he, what he communicates to the people that — that are in need,” Mr. Biden said during a hurricane briefing. “He implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are.”
“If I sound frustrated, I am,” he added.
During a Cabinet meeting on the hurricane this week, Mr. Biden interrupted with a reality check when officials started describing a hotline the administration had set up.
“Folks, there’s no phone service,” he said, according to an official present during the meeting. “We’re lucky if they have phones.”
And during a meeting in the Oval Office on Monday with his top national security officials, he asked his aides to wrap it up. They finished the discussion on the Middle East in another room so he could turn to other pressing matters.
“We need to finish this conversation,” Mr. Biden said, according to an administration official familiar with the meeting.
The president had a list of things to do.
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