Tuesday morning, President Biden observed Iran’s barrage of ballistic missiles fired at Israel from the comfort of the White House Situation Room, where he was seated. Mr. Biden had devoted a significant portion of his administration to preventing a bigger conflict in the Middle East, but now it had come.
However, a different disaster had also occurred nearby.
A White House aide presented him with a series of documents concerning Hurricane Helene, the most devastating storm to hit the United States mainland in almost twenty years, while he was in the midst of discussing military options with his advisors on foreign policy.
An anonymous senior administration source described the time Mr. Biden spent that morning inside the ultrasecure facility as a clear illustration of the last months of his presidency. The official was speaking about a classified discussion. At the same time that he is letting Vice President Kamala Harris steal the show, he is juggling a number of big problems that are unfolding at the same time as he winds down his term in office.
As Mr. Biden fades from public view, this serves as a reminder that his presidency may still have some pivotal days ahead of him. Additionally, no president in history has ever enjoyed the luxury of addressing just one issue at a time.
In addition to the devastating hurricane and the ongoing battle in the Middle East, Mr. Biden also has a number of other pressing issues to address, including as the crisis in Ukraine, the threat of nuclear escalation by Russia, a dockworkers’ strike that was both brief and severe, and the return of former president Donald J. Trump to the White House. (And let’s not even get started on the possibility of an October Surprise or concerns about foreign meddling in the elections. The list is endless.)
“It’s unusual,” Democratic strategist Paul Begala remarked of the disarray that characterized Mr. Biden’s last months in office. During his final national security briefing to then-President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Begala remembers Colin Powell saying, “The world is quiet today.”
There might not be an opportunity like that for Mr. Biden’s national security advisor. “The world is quiet today,” Mr. Begala observed, implying that Jake Sullivan would not go to President Biden’s Oval Office and say so.
In the last weeks leading up to the election, Mr. Trump and his supporters have used a number of crises to argue that the globe has become more unstable during Mr. Biden’s presidency.
While participating in this week’s vice-presidential debate, Mr. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, stated, “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.”
On the other hand, Democrats see this as a golden opportunity to compare and contrast Trump’s and Biden’s (and, by implication, Ms. Harris’s) approaches to government.
Mr. Biden surprised everyone by showing up unannounced to Friday’s White House briefing, where he discussed a wide array of topics, including the robust US labor market, the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, and the port strike.
The walkout, which started on Tuesday and ended on Thursday, was stopped from becoming a serious disaster for the country, according to Mr. Biden. It is a key period, and I was determined to prevent a crisis at this very moment. There would be an issue if we procrastinated any longer.
A White House official named Andrew Bates stated that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris were instrumental in securing the port arrangement, have “relentlessly” advocated for hurricane-affected regions, and have stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Israel as they bolstered the economy.
The president’s patience has been tested on occasion.
Mr. Biden reacted angrily when questioned about the assaults launched by Mr. Trump and his associates, including the unfounded assertion that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp had been unable to contact the president.
During a hurricane briefing, Mr. Biden stated, “I don’t care about what he says about me, but I care what he communicates to the people that — that are in need.” By his words, it seems like we aren’t exhausting all of our options. Yeah, we are.
“I am being very frustrated,” he added.
Mr. Biden provided a reality check during this week’s hurricane-related Cabinet meeting when officials began to describe an administration hotline.
“Listen up, folks, there’s no phone service,” he reportedly told the assembled official. “If they have phones, we’re lucky.”
On Monday, when meeting with his top national security officials in the Oval Office, he instructed his aides to conclude the matter. After they finished talking about the Middle East in another room, he could move on to more important things.
Reports indicate that Mr. Biden stated, “We need to finish this conversation,” as reported by an administration official familiar with the meeting..
A number of items were on the president’s to-do list.
