Joe Biden, President of United States is sticking with
his White House team despite lagging poll numbers that have contributed to
rising Democratic worries about the party's prospects in next year’s
midterm elections.
Biden’s core team has remained largely intact, and there are
few signs of a looming shake-up. The White House and its allies have also
signaled they see little reason to make changes.
“I don’t think the problem is staffing,” said Jim Kessler,
Executive Vice President for Policy at Democratic think tank Third Way.
“I don’t think there’s any need to make staffing changes,”
added Basil Smikle, a Democratic strategist and Director of Hunter College’s
Public Policy Program.
The end of Biden’s first year in office has been difficult,
with the key item in his legislative agenda stuck in the Senate largely because
of an impasse with Sen. Joe Manchin.
The White House is also dealing with a nagging pandemic as
COVID-19 case rise and the omicron variant threatens to create a new wave of
the virus in the United States. The pandemic has also fed Biden’s economic
problems, from inflation to supply chain crisis that has frustrated businesses
and consumers.
These are all real challenges but are not symptoms of a
staffing problem. They pointed instead to the deep polarization in Congress and
a pessimistic electorate that is tired of the pandemic and related economic
issues.
Smikle said the 50-50 Senate equally divided between
Democrats and Republicans is the reason for Biden’s difficulties legislatively
and that staffing would not make much of a difference.
“The challenges with the legislation are less about his own
administration and more about the political landscape in the Senate and the
small majority there as well as the broader polarization within Congress,” he
said.
Kessler said that while the White House is hearing a lot of
criticism on its messaging, Biden’s problems aren’t that unusual.
“Democrats have historically had a hard time crowing about
good economic news when they’re in charge because there is a belief that if
people think the economy is good then they don’t need democratic programs,” he
said.
“Meanwhile, Republicans are saying the economy is bad
because they want to take power. Democrats need to take a page from Ronald
Reagan and be talking about the positives in this economy.”
Sources pointed to Biden’s history as a loyal boss who
enjoys a tight-knit inner circle of aides he has known for years, including
White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, and senior advisers Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon.
Asked about Biden’s legislative team, Sen. Chris Coons,
a Biden ally, said they “do a great job.” “I like them personally, I
respect them professionally and I think they’re doing a really good job of managing
some really tough dynamics,” Coons said. “Our Framers intended the executive
and legislative branches to have different priorities and to have a contest of
ideas. There are 635 of us over here. It’s not easy. Given that, they do about
as good a job as they could.”
Former President Trump presided over unprecedented
turnover among White House staff and across his administration. He was prone to
firing and replacing high-level officials, cycling through multiple chiefs of
staff, press secretaries and national security advisers in his first year,
which led to further dysfunction.
Vice President Harris’s office has also seen staff churn
during her first year, which has contributed to a perception of dysfunction
within her operation.
Roberta Jacobson, who was tapped to oversee issues
surrounding the US-Mexico border, left in April after a brief stint in what she
said was a planned departure. Tyler Moran, a senior adviser on migration, is
set to leave in January after spending roughly six months in the
administration.
Andy Slavitt departed the White House coronavirus response
team in June as previously planned, and Anita Dunn, who held a senior role
in the communications team, also made a planned exit over the summer.
Biden’s first Staff Secretary left in October and the
Director of the Presidential Personnel Office left last week for the top job at
UNICEF. A handful of lower-level communications aides have also departed. None
of the departures so far have been attributed to a deliberate effort by Biden
to shake up his staff.
There are Democrats who look at the poll numbers and
privately question why Biden hasn’t taken a closer look at replacing some aides
around him.
"Voters have had enough and the Biden team keeps
doubling down," said one Democratic strategist, pointing to the President's
low approval ratings. "Begs the question, when does Biden stop listening
to a team that has tanked his presidency in less than 12 months?"
A strategist said the New Year would be an ideal time for a
transition. “As they approach year two of the presidency, it
might be a good time to change things up and bring in fresh perspectives in
order to help with some of the unplanned challenges that have come up in the
last part of the year,” the strategist said. “Phase two happens in every
administration, and it's a way they could pivot from the past few months."
Others dismissed such suggestions. One person familiar with
Biden World’s thinking said it was best to “do the opposite” of what anonymous
strategists were suggesting.
“Biden has surrounded himself with people he’s worked with
for decades,” said Chris Whipple, author of “The Gatekeepers,” a book about
White House chiefs of staff. “That lends real stability when you’ve got people
like that.”
The messy withdrawal from Afghanistan prompted questions
about whether Biden would fire one of his advisers, and there were rumblings
that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was on rocky footing.
But Biden ultimately did not make changes, a signal that the withdrawal was his
decision and he would own it.
“I’d say it’s remarkable that in the wake of Afghanistan
there were no changes at all,” said Bill Galston, Chairman of the Brookings
Institution’s Government Studies Program. “That may reflect the fact that
almost everything that happened was driven from the president down and not the
staff up.” “What’s he going to do, fire himself?” he added.
Still, some departures could be on the horizon. White House
press secretary Jen Psaki has said she expects to leave her post next
year, though she hasn’t laid out a timeline.
Others may serve out their positions until at least the
midterm elections.
“You try to get the administration through the midterms,
make sure their agenda, which in the first two years would be the most
ambitious, you try to get that pushed through, especially when you have the
House and the Senate as allies,” Smikle said.
