Five Storylines Overshadow Joe Biden's Summer Agenda

Media headlines in recent weeks soured on President Joe Biden, as his agenda appears derailed by setbacks ranging from Supreme Court rulings to economic pessimism to nagging scandals.

While gearing up for his 2024 campaign, Biden launched an economic public relations scheme. He calls it “Bidenomics.” The plan is meant to reverse voters’ negative perception of the nation’s direction.

According to a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll, 78 percent of voters believe Biden’s America is on the wrong track, increasing over 25 points since Biden took office. Just three in ten Americans say Biden’s economy is good, an AP-NORC Center poll recently found.

The public relations scheme of “Bidenomics” received favorable headlines from the establishment media, which always seem eager to help the administration stay on its talking points. “Embracing ‘Bidenomics,’ president seeks to turn insult into strength,” a Washington Post headline read.

But the positive headlines appear unable to overshadow a wave of “rough summer” storylines, as Punchbowl News put it. Below are five storylines that flooded the establishment media and derailed Biden’s latest push:

1) Supreme Court

CNN: Opinion: The warning for Democrats in the recent Supreme Court rulings

In the runup to the 2024 elections, Democrats plan to put the Supreme Court on trial. President Joe Biden and Democratic allies already have made the high court’s 6-3 conservative majority a political punching bag, a strategy spurred on by the justices’ landmark decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade and its constitutional guarantee of access to abortion.

But that approach may have its limits, as a pair of high-profile, end-of-term Supreme Court opinions shows. The high court last Thursday ruled that colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission, and on Friday it struck down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.

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The problem for Democrats, though, is that the court’s views on the higher education issues at hand are likely more in line with voters than their own. Though their political battle plan to demonize the Supreme Court has until now been largely successful, Democrats are poised to make a major miscalculation if they assume this year’s decisions will push more people against the court and therefore further into Democratic arms.

2) Cocaine

CBS News: Substance found in White House confirmed to be cocaine

Subsequent testing confirmed that a powdery substance discovered by the Secret Service at the White House on Sunday was cocaine, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, as questions linger about how the drug got into the building. The discovery of the substance caused a brief shutdown of the White House after it was found by Secret Service officers in a common storage area on the ground floor of the West Wing, which houses the Oval Office and offices of some of the president’s top aides and support staff. It was found in a zip-close bag near an entrance where visitors taking tours are directed to leave their phones, the official said.

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The Secret Service is not ruling out any White House personnel, guests or visitors. At this point, one leading theory is that the bag was brought in by an individual on a White House tour of the West Wing, according to senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.

3) Biden Family Probe

Associated Press: Republicans are using financial records to investigate Hunter Biden. Here’s how

Facing growing pressure to show progress in their investigations, House Republicans on Wednesday detailed what they say are concerning new findings about President Joe Biden’s family and their finances.

The smoking gun, according to the GOP, is recently obtained financial records connected to the president’s son Hunter Biden, brother James Biden and a growing number of associates who received millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania. They suggest, without evidence, that the payments were part of a wide-ranging scheme to enrich themselves off the family name.

To help them get here, Congressional Republicans relied on more than 150 suspicious activity reports as a roadmap to follow what they call the Bidens’ complicated financial money trail.

4) Economy

AP-NORC Center: The public still has negative views of the national economy

Overall, 41% approve of Biden’s job performance, just about the same as last month. Fifty-eight percent disapprove. The economy remains a weak point for the president, with 34% of the public approving of his handling of the economy, and 64% who disapprove. About 4 in 10 approve of how Biden is dealing with health care and foreign policy.

While 72% of Democrats approve of how Biden is handling of his job overall, just 60% approve of his handling of the economy. Only about 1 in 10 Republicans approve of Biden’s job performance overall or on the economy.

Democrats under age 45 are less likely than older Democrats to approve of the president, both his overall job performance (65% vs 78%) and his handling of the economy (47% vs 70%).

5) Mental Acuity

The Hill: We need a serious conversation about Joe Biden’s brain

Although many journalists did a fine job this week highlighting the president’s apparent confusion regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one can’t help but feel as if the news industry as a whole is avoiding the obvious follow-up question. Namely, “Is Biden OK?”

It’s not an unfair question, either, considering the Iraq/Ukraine gaffes were not an isolated series of incidents. They are simply the latest in a string of bizarre, confused and mostly unintelligible statements from Biden in the much longer string of bizarre, confused and mostly unintelligible statements that have come to define the Biden presidency.

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This isn’t just about whether Biden has the stuff to finish this term, let alone serve a second one. This is also about why we in the media aren’t having a more robust debate regarding Biden’s mental acuity. The apparent lack of interest in the matter certainly feels like a change of pace for an industry that historically hasn’t shied from the issue.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

Five Storylines Overshadow Joe Biden’s Summer Agenda

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