Biden's first 100 days

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Axios politics editor Glen Johnson recalls that in 2001 when he was a Boston Globe congressional reporter, he approached Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden as he headed for an elevator:

I asked why the nomination for the U.S. ambassador to Ireland — a position intended for a Massachusetts resident — was being delayed. "It's going to probably take a little time, because of going over the contribution limits," Biden said — revealing the nominee had made excess campaign donations.

Seeing my eyes widen, Biden smiled and said: "I'm not sure if I was supposed to tell you that, but there you go."

White House reporters, don't get your hopes up. Biden is succeeding as president in part because he's abandoned his loquacious ways as a senator, Glen writes: 

During his first 100 days, the new president gave up long-winded speeches, took his staff's counsel about when and where to engage and has been willing to step out of the spotlight.

The result has been an ability to deliver on legislation, calm the public mood, avoid distractions and hold stable favorability ratings.

During his 36 years in the Senate, "Amtrak Joe" was a prototypical lawmaker — slicked-back mane, pinstriped suit, never met a microphone he didn't like.

His digressions and tangents as chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees were legendary.

The change started when Biden became President Obama's vice president. Biden no longer was CEO of his own operation but junior partner in the most powerful office in the world.

On the 2020 campaign trail, Biden ended up benefitting from the pandemic: 

Public events and media free-for-alls were limited, reducing chances for gaffes (although not to zero).

A Washington Post tracker shows that Biden has made more public remarks than Donald Trump at the same point — although Biden has given fewer speeches, interviews and press conferences.

But Biden has learned: Just because you're talking, it doesn't mean you have to make news. 

1. Biden learns discipline

It's quite the turnaround from his Senate days.

Photo illustration of President Biden with part of a transcript from a speech visible behind him

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images

Joe Biden

Axios politics editor Glen Johnson recalls that in 2001 when he was a Boston Globe congressional reporter, he approached Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden as he headed for an elevator:<blockquote>I asked why the nomination for the U.S. ambassador to Ireland — a position intended for a Massachusetts resident — was being delayed. &quot;It&#x27;s going to probably take a little time, because of going over the contribution limits,&quot; Biden said — revealing the nominee had made excess campaign donations.</blockquote><blockquote>Seeing my eyes widen, Biden smiled and said: &quot;I&#x27;m not sure if I was supposed to tell you that, but there you go.&quot;</blockquote>White House reporters, don&#x27;t get your hopes up. Biden is succeeding as president in part because he&#x27;s abandoned his loquacious ways as a senator, Glen writes:

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

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President Biden campaigned on a climate platform vastly stronger than any major party nominee in history, and now the White House is making its enactment a major priority.

Why it matters: It's a remarkable turn, given that Biden entered the race as a moderate and climate wasn't a top priority during his Senate career.

No White House has put climate so high on its governing agenda since global warming burst onto the political scene in the scorching summer of 1988.

Catch up fast: The White House has offered a formal pledge under the Paris climate deal to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

It's asking Congress for unprecedented investments in climate innovation and infrastructure.

Biden is also trying to use agencies government-wide in the service of cutting emissions — and helping other countries do so — in a way that's never been attempted.

The big picture: Here's why Biden became the unlikely climate candidate and president:

1. Politics. Democratic voters have become more motivated by the topic. Going big helped Biden woo Bernie Sanders backers to vote in the general election. 

It also helped appease activists who pressed Biden for steps like trying to ban fracking (though Biden rebuffed them there).

Biden even moved left after securing the nomination, adding a target of 100% zero-carbon power by 2035 and other provisions to his platform.

2. Opportunity. Democrats' unexpected Senate control, combined with the pandemic, create an opening for big economic recovery legislation packed with climate spending.

3. Science. Major reports in the last few years have revealed the immense dangers if the world fails to act aggressively and rapidly.

Yes, but: It's too early to know whether Biden can transform his proposals into steep emissions cuts.

Biden pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 52% by 2030

The Biden climate doctrine emerges at summit

2. The unlikely climate president

No prior occupant of the office has elevated climate to such high importance.

Climate change

President Biden campaigned on a climate platform vastly stronger than any major party nominee in history, and now the White House is making its enactment a major priority.Why it matters: It&#x27;s a remarkable turn, given that Biden entered the race as a moderate and climate wasn&#x27;t a top priority during his Senate career.

Ominous forecasts about the impact of climate change serve as the backdrop for the world — led by U.S. lawmakers and companies — to debate big action on the problem, which could upend energy systems and our way of life.

Energy & Environment

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The biggest foreign policy surprise from President Biden’s first 100 days was his decision to act on a promise his predecessors hadn't: the full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Why it matters: Biden didn't settle on an unconditional withdrawal because he saw a path to a stable Afghanistan without U.S. troops in the country. Instead, he argued that it was clear by now that no such path existed with them there.

Flashback: As Donald Trump’s May 1 deadline to pull out approached without any announcement from Biden, a delay became inevitable — likely with all the usual caveats about supporting the diplomatic process and responding to conditions on the ground.

One Middle Eastern official told me knowingly that Biden’s challenge was to convince Americans that he was getting out and the Taliban that he was prepared to stay.

So the surprise from Biden’s mid-April announcement was not the timeline — all U.S. troops out by Sep. 11 — but how definitive it was. 

“This is not conditions-based,” a senior administration official emphasized. No counterterrorism force would stay behind. After 20 years, America was getting out.

Senior leaders in the Pentagon reportedly argued against that approach behind closed doors. Former top commanders, like David Petraeus, did so publicly. 

In his speech, Biden mentioned the counterarguments — such as the U.S. would be abandoning its leverage or handing its foes a victory — and discarded them as “a recipe for keeping American troops in Afghanistan indefinitely.”

3. Hard exit from Afghanistan

Illustration of a helicopter flying next to a map of Afghanistan

Afghanistan

The biggest foreign policy surprise from President Biden’s first 100 days was his decision to act on a promise his predecessors hadn&#x27;t: the full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.Why it matters: Biden didn&#x27;t settle on an unconditional withdrawal because he saw a path to a stable Afghanistan without U.S. troops in the country. Instead, he argued that it was clear by now that no such path existed with them there.

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

To the delight of trust-busting progressives, President Biden has tapped two Big Tech critics for key roles in the administration.

Why it matters: Biden’s appointments so far show a sharper turn to the left and a deeper interest in new regulation than some expected.

What’s happening: Biden named Tim Wu as a special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy at the National Economic Council and nominated Lina Khan to be a Democratic commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission.

Wu and Khan are both antitrust scholars who argue for increased enforcement in the tech industry.

Wu wrote the "The Curse of Bigness" about the dangers of Big Tech's growing power, and Khan rose to prominence after writing “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” in the Yale Law Journal.

What they’re saying: “When it comes to the performance of the antitrust agencies —  particularly when it comes to the tech sector —  there's a relatively broad, if not always broadcasted, consensus that they fell down on the job with catastrophic results,” said Sarah Miller,  executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, which urges aggressive antitrust enforcement in tech and other sectors.

“Tim and Lina demonstrated rare foresight on the threats to fair competition and democracy from dominant tech platforms, are leading scholars on how to leverage policy to address those threats, and have significant experience in public service.”

Miller said the picks suggest that Biden’s approach to antitrust enforcement will be much different than that of the Obama administration’s, which allowed several Big Tech mergers, including Facebook's acquisition of Instagram, to go unchallenged.

4. Strong arm on tech

He picked two progressives for key antitrust roles, suggesting a greater openness to regulation than some expected.

Illustration of a hand pushing computer arrows away

Big Tech regulation

To the delight of trust-busting progressives, President Biden has tapped two Big Tech critics for key roles in the administration.Why it matters: Biden’s appointments so far show a sharper turn to the left and a deeper interest in new regulation than some expected.

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

Data: CDC via Our World in Data. Chart: Will Chase/Axios

5. Charted: The stat that matters most

COVID-19 vaccines

Coronavirus

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

Data: NewsWhip; Chart: Sara Wise, Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

Looking beyond the ongoing, encompassing storyline of the pandemic and vaccination efforts, the fallout from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was the dominant topic of online interest during President Biden's opening months in office, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip.

The big picture: With the sitting president no longer a singular force of drama and controversy, the attention of the news world has reached beyond politics.

By the numbers: During this period, vaccinations generated the most overall engagement, largely driven by the sheer volume of coverage.

The Capitol riot and impeachment were the second and third biggest topics but averaged much higher interactions per article (likes, comments, shares) than vaccines.

Topics outside of the White House have captured our attention and emotion in the last 100 days, but they have been fleeting.

In late January, we fixated on former President Trump's impeachment and then the populist-driven surge in GameStop stock.

Trump's impeachment concluded with his acquittal in February, and we moved on to Sen. Ted Cruz's international travels as the COVID relief bill began to pick up steam.

March began with an uproar about suspended Dr. Seuss books and ended with a flurry of news and controversy about the Georgia voting bill, hatred against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the British royal family and Rep. Matt Gaetz.

In April, conversation about restrictive voting bills intensified, infrastructure talk picked up and the nation's eyes turned to Minnesota for the Derek Chauvin trial.

Between the lines: Meme-powered events like the Suez Canal boat and GameStop, while driven by social media, did not lend themselves to high engagement on news articles of the events. 

Media coverage tended to be more buttoned-up and less creative than the activity that was native to the platforms.

Stories about Biden generated 622 million interactions on social media, compared to 515 million for Trump.

But engagement per article for Trump was nearly 50% higher, showing how he continues to be a social media lightning rod, even with his own accounts banned.

However, nothing compared to Cruz's travels on a per-article basis. Stories about him averaged 3,144 interactions, nearly twice as much as the next biggest — Dr. Seuss.

6. Data to go: What drove the news

The sitting president is no longer a singular force of drama and controversy in the news world.

Looking beyond the ongoing, encompassing storyline of the pandemic and vaccination efforts, the fallout from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was the dominant topic of online interest during President Biden&#x27;s opening months in office, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip.The big picture: With the sitting president no longer a singular force of drama and controversy, the attention of the news world has reached beyond politics.

Biden learns discipline

Photo illustration of President Biden surrounded by stars

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images