The Biden Presidency

Joe Biden won the presidency promising bold action on many fronts: the COVID-19 pandemic, the struggling economy, racial and social justice, health care, climate change and international relations. He also declared his desire to heal the country's fierce partisan divisions and to lower the temperature of its heated political debate. But Biden faces significant hurdles to accomplishing his goals: a closely divided Senate in which many Republicans are likely to have little interest in helping him succeed, a liberal wing of his own party pushing a bold agenda and resistant to compromise and a Supreme Court with a deeply conservative majority. Still, Biden's party will control the congressional agenda, and some analysts believe Biden's personal relationships with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican senators may provide an avenue for legislative compromise. Other analysts say Biden could face unyielding partisan opposition, particularly if Donald Trump continues to claim that massive fraud was behind his election loss.