President Biden’s disappearance while negotiations continue over a spending bill to fund the government past Friday is just fine with Democrats, according to a new report.
“Biden has remained conspicuously absent outside a brief statement issued by his press secretary — and for now, Democrats said there was little clamor for him to return,” Politico reported Thursday, one day after Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump scuttled the first bipartisan spending bill.
The article said that despite the scramble to avert a government shutdown, “no one seemed to be looking to Biden for answers — and the lame-duck president gave no indication he had any desire to provide them.”
“I haven’t gotten any message from President Biden, or heard of anything that he’s saying,” California Democratic Rep. Mark Takano told Politico, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wouldn’t say he’s been in touch with Biden, only that he’s been in “close contact with the administration.”
As Politico put it, “Democrats appeared largely fine with Biden taking a back seat.”
Even during a caucus meeting among House Democrats, “there’d been no contemplation of Biden’s own views on the stalemate” with members instead “pointedly referring to Musk as ‘President Musk.’”
Biden allies argued the silence was “a strategic decision” to position Trump to “take the blame for any shutdown…damaging him politically even before he takes office.”
Still, Politico reported Democrats have only spoken to White House staffers during this time, with no confirmations of a direct line to the current president.
Biden had spent all Wednesday at his Wilmington, Delaware, home with the White House calling a lid after the bipartisan bill was rejected. He remained there on Thursday and kept silent with nothing on his public schedule.
“[T}he president’s absence underscores a jarring reality that officials in both parties said has become clear since the November election: While Biden technically still runs the country, Trump — and increasingly Musk — are the real captains now,” Politico said.
Democrats hope to pin blame for a potential shutdown on Trump and “President Musk.”
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