new York During these weeks of war, US President Joe Biden has received a lot of praise for his role in foreign policy: he has been dubbed “the new leader of the West” and “Europe’s best man” in the media. Since the Russian invasion, the transatlantic relationship has been more lively than it has been for decades. On his trip to Europe, Biden scored despite a few mistakes. “The West is now stronger and more united than it has ever been,” he said.
The relationship between the USA and Germany has not been so good for a long time. The federal government’s pledge to increase military spending comes during Biden’s tenure. Barack Obama and Donald Trump had pushed for it in vain.
But none of that helps at home: Many US citizens are at odds with their president.
With seven months to go before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, just over 41 percent of respondents say they are happy with the president, according to multiple polls. More than 53 percent are dissatisfied with their work. At the beginning of his tenure, it was almost exactly the opposite.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
That doesn’t bode well for Biden. In April 2018, before the midterms, then-US President Trump received similarly poor poll numbers – and lost the majority in the Senate the following November. That is exactly what the Democrats, who currently only have a wafer-thin majority in the important chamber, are threatened with.
Most Americans are clearly on the side of Ukraine in the war, as polls show. But foreign policy rarely wins elections.
(Photo: dpa)
Most Americans are clearly on the side of Ukraine in the war, as polls show. But foreign policy rarely wins elections. Ultimately, most Americans are interested in what’s happening in the US. Above all, the rise in petrol prices and the cost of living determine the discussion there.
Inflation is the number one issue for Americans
According to a Quinnipiac University poll in March, 30 percent of respondents said inflation was the top issue facing the nation, followed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine (14 percent) and immigration (9 percent).
Inflation hit 7.9 percent in February, with many voters blaming the government for that. Gasoline prices have risen from less than $2 a gallon (3.8 liters) in April 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic to $4.30 most recently. In some states, the price is even more than six dollars.
“The high gasoline prices are the result of the Green New Deal,” Republican Ted Cruz criticized this week with a view to the environmental policy of the Biden administration. But the Republicans are not only exploiting the anger of the citizens when filling up in the election campaign that has already started. The latest revelations about the President’s son, Hunter Biden, also help them.
Revelations about Hunter Biden can harm the father
Suddenly Hunter Biden’s consulting business is on everyone’s lips again, and media outlets close to the Democrats, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, have recently published articles about his problems with the tax authorities and his work in Ukraine as well as published in China. The public prosecutor’s office is now investigating Hunter Biden in a tax matter. It should also go to the foreign income of the President’s son.
It all started with a computer: in April 2019, the 52-year-old son of the President brought his laptop to a fervent Trump supporter of all places for repairs. He found a lot of e-mails there that he felt were explosive and could harm Hunter Biden and his father. The computer specialist took the laptop to the FBI and actually expected that the son of the former vice president would now be arrested. But nothing happened.
The computer specialist therefore passed the emails to media close to Trump, such as the New York Post and Fox News, which reported on them. But other major newspapers stayed away because, as they now say, they didn’t know if the emails were authentic. Then-Attorney General William Barr had not officially released the data before the election.
Hunter Biden capitalized on his father’s name
To this day it is unclear whether Hunter Biden really broke any laws. On the other hand, it seems clear to most observers that he made good use of the name of his father, who was well versed in foreign policy, to get lucrative consulting contracts. One of them came from the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where he became a member of the supervisory board.
Hunter Biden, a lawyer, took up the lucrative post in April 2014, just a month after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea. Joe Biden, then Vice President Barack Obama, was a clear supporter of Ukraine – and Hunter Biden himself had no particular Ukraine expertise or experience in the gas sector. Just a few months earlier, he had been released from the Navy Reserve for cocaine use, into which he had joined without military training.
Hunter Biden is also better known for his extravagant life with drugs and changing partners. He ended up in the gossip columns because his ex-wife accused him of wasting money in strip clubs and on cocaine when they divorced. When his older brother Beau Biden died in 2015, he began a relationship with his widow, but then surprisingly married another woman.
Hunter Biden appears to have made good use of the name of his foreign policy-savvy father, Joe Biden, to land lucrative consulting contracts.
(Photo: imago images/UPI Photo)
But the Republicans are not only scoring points with the population with Hunter Biden and inflation. They repeatedly accuse the Democrats and even the US military of being “woke,” that is, caring more about LGBT rights or the removal of historical statues than about people’s really pressing problems. The issue of illegal immigration is used to attract votes, especially in border states like Texas.
Biden’s domestic record in recent months has been poor
Biden himself has recently not been able to show too much domestic policy. In the fall, he pushed through his $1 trillion infrastructure package with the votes of both parties. But since then the balance sheet has been sobering. His large-scale Build Back Better plan for a more social and climate-friendly America failed in December when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin vetoed it.
Since then, Biden has been trying to salvage at least parts of it and sell it under a new name. Manchin has indicated he would certainly vote in favour, on drug prices and climate action.
But at least the same amount should be used to fight inflation and reduce the deficit. “We should use half of the money to fight inflation and reduce the deficit,” he recently told journalists. “For the other half, we can take a ten-year program, which is now the top priority. At the moment, that seems to be the environment,” he said. Nothing concrete is on the table yet.
Democrats need to hurry if they want to leverage their majority in both houses before November. If the polls come true, they won’t stand a chance after the midterm elections.
Biden: “In my tenure we created 7.9 million jobs”
How does Biden react? Since returning from his trip to Europe, he has not lost sight of the war in Ukraine. Just this week he issued further sanctions against Russia – including against Vladimir Putin’s adult children.
But he is again devoting himself to domestic political issues. On Friday, he used the strong jobs data to celebrate his economic record. “During my tenure, our recovery has created more than 7.9 million jobs. Americans are back in the job,” he explained. “Record jobs. Record reduction in unemployment. Record wage increases”.
On Tuesday, he and former President Obama brought some old-time glamor to the White House to announce the extension of Obama’s Affordable Care Act health coverage. On the same day, he extended the deferral of student loan repayments until the end of August.
On Wednesday he spoke to the construction union, a base that the Democrats are increasingly losing. And in the House of Representatives on the same day, the Energy Committee summoned six oil company CEOs to question them about recent price increases. In order to identify other culprits in the high price of petrol besides Putin. Just not the Democrats.
More: The Ukraine war unites America – and becomes a problem for Trump