REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden says he is “determined to accomplish as much as possible in his final six months in the White House” as he tries to roll back a crucial force that has been strenuous to defeat on his hit-list predecessors: sinking relevance.
Biden hopes to keep the money flowing with hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds secured from a series of key legislative victories early in his term – landmark policy achievements that could be undone if Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House.
He also desperately wants Israel and Hamas to agree to his proposed three-stage ceasefire agreement to bring the remaining Israeli hostages home and potentially pave the way for an end to the nine-month war in Gaza, a move that would involve no compact amount of risk for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas leadership.
Biden will also push to quickly fill vacancies in the federal judiciary – there are currently 48 – and make appointments to other federal agencies, but he will undoubtedly face resistance from Senate Republicans who want to prevent Biden from winning elections at the end of his term.
In brief, Biden is gathering his team to aid him defy political gravity.
“I will remain fully engaged,” Biden, who is recovering from a COVID-19 infection at his beach house in Delaware, promised his staff in a hoarse voice during a phone call on Monday from his former campaign headquarters.
At the White House, staff await Biden’s expected return on Tuesday after he spent the past six days recovering.
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients urged his aides on Monday to hold back and focus on the work that remains to be done, citing reducing housing and health care costs, implementing the administration’s key legislative accomplishments and safeguarding democracy as Biden’s top priorities for the final months of his term.
That message is being repeated throughout the administration. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told senior State Department officials that Biden wants his team to remain fully focused on executing his foreign policy agenda. According to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, Blinken noted that there is still “one-eighth” of Biden’s term left.
Biden, who is scheduled to meet with Israel’s Netanyahu later this week, said during his call with the campaign team that he was focused on a ceasefire agreement and expressed optimism that a deal was imminent. His standing with some of his liberal voters has plummeted as the death toll in Gaza has mounted. More than 39,000 people have died, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
“I will work very closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians to figure out how we can end the war in Gaza, bring peace to the Middle East and bring all the hostages home,” Biden told the campaign team. “I think we are close to doing that.”
Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East peace negotiator, said a ceasefire seemed closer than at any time during the entire conflict.
Netanyahu is under pressure from far-right members of his coalition to oppose any deal that prevents Israel from crushing Hamas in Gaza. But the Israeli prime minister may have some leeway when Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, goes into a three-month recess on July 28. Far-right members of his coalition would not be able to hold a no-confidence vote during that time.
Biden’s influence over Netanyahu, who is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday as part of his visit to Washington, remains constrained. And it would be threatening to escalate the rhetorical pressure on Netanyahu, who wants to show an Israeli audience that he remains popular in the Capitol and can withstand any pressure from the White House, Miller said.
“There could be a ceasefire no matter what Biden does or doesn’t do,” added Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Biden and Kamala Harris need to be careful how Republicans interpret, exploit and use anything that is perceived as pressure on Israel.”
Presidents who are no longer in office have used the final days of their term to initiate significant policy measures.
In 2008, President George W. Bush signed a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, weeks before Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain. Bush also approved more than $17 billion to keep the American auto industry afloat in the final weeks of his presidency, when the economy was faltering.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton initiated negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David in Maryland in a final—and ultimately unsuccessful—attempt to bring peace to the Middle East as his presidency drew to a close.
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s efforts to end the Vietnam War in the final months of his administration failed in 1968. Historians point out that Johnson’s successor, Republican Richard Nixon, secretly tried to sluggish the effort because he feared a deal would damage his electoral chances.
The foreign policy space – and in particular support for the elaboration of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas – may be Biden’s best hope for a final, defining moment.
“Between Ukraine and Gaza, Biden’s national security team is stretched too thin. They have more than enough to do,” said Gordon Gray, a former U.S. ambassador to Tunisia who is now a professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. “Realistically, there may not be enough time for major breakthroughs.”
William Howell, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, said that while lame duck status inevitably limits a presidency, it does not necessarily render it incapable of taking action.
Howell said Biden, who has pledged to support Harris’s bid for the White House, could now become a dominant force in the campaign after succumbing to pressure from deep-pocketed donors who had threatened to withhold money from him if he did not drop out of the campaign.
“His most important task in the coming months will be to create the conditions for Kamala Harris’ success,” Howell said.
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Associated Press writers Chris Megerian in Wilmington, Delaware, and Seung Min Kim, Matthew Lee and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
