Adding to Biden’s nightmare week was his private lunch with Senate Democrats to rally support for his federal takeover of elections bill. But he’d already been upstaged by AZ Senator Krysten Sinema. Minutes before she had spoken on the Senate floor saying she wouldn’t back ditching the filibuster to ram the bill through. She urged Biden to do something he hasn’t done as President: “sit down with the other party” and negotiate.
One Democratic staffer quipped to Politico that “Krysten Sinema is having Joe Biden for lunch.”
Meanwhile, some members of Biden’s own transition team, including former Obama Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, called for an urgent reset on his COVID strategy or he risks losing credibility.
Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democratic leader, admitted that Biden went a “little too far” in a Tuesday speech in Georgia comparing Republicans with segregationists like George Wallace and Jefferson Davis. Several local civil rights leaders – including Stacey Abrams – declined to show up for the speech, a signal of Biden’s plummeting popularity (33% in the new Quinnipiac Poll).
The way this week is going, Stacey Abrams is looking like the most politically shrewd Democrat in the country for deciding to stay well clear of Joe Biden
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) January 13, 2022