The Biden Presidency

Introduction

Joe Biden addresses the nation on Nov. 7 in Wilmington, Del., after winning the presidency. Biden won majorities in the popular vote and the Electoral College but faces a highly polarized nation as he works to address the pandemic and a faltering economy. (Getty Images/Tasos Katopodis)

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Overview

On a cold night in Delaware on Nov. 7, former Vice President Joe Biden claimed victory in the 2020 presidential election. Facing a parking lot filled with supporters who sat in and on top of their cars to maintain social distance in the midst of a pandemic that already had claimed more than 230,000 lives, Biden sought to strike a unifying note after a divisive contest. He promised to be a president for all of America, one “who doesn't see red and blue states, but a United States.”

But Biden also returned to the ambitious policy agenda he outlined during his campaign against President Trump, which sought to address a set of challenges as large as any leader has faced in recent memory: the COVID-19 pandemic, a badly damaged economy, social unrest tied to racial injustice, strained foreign relationships and global climate change.

A Century 21 department store holds a going-out-of-business sale in October in New York City. Biden has said he will push for more economic aid to address the damage that the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted on businesses and jobs. (Getty Images/Education Images/Universal Images Group/Lindsey Nicholson)

“Now that the campaign is over — what is the people's will? What is our mandate?” Biden said. “I believe it is this: Americans have called on us to marshal the forces of decency and the forces of fairness … the forces of science and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time.”1

He went on to enumerate those struggles: “The battle to control the virus. The battle to build prosperity. The battle to secure your family's health care. The battle to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country. The battle to save the climate. The battle to restore decency, defend democracy and give everybody in this country a fair shot.”2

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Although he won a record 81.3 million votes, 51.4 percent of those cast, along with 306 electoral votes, much of Biden's agenda is likely to face stiff opposition in Congress among Republicans, despite his pleas for unity. While Biden's Democrats will control both chambers of Congress, the new president will still need to find areas of common ground with at least some Republicans in the Senate, where the rules permit a minority to block action on many types of legislation. Biden will also need to bridge divides within his own Democratic Party between its progressive and centrist wings.3 And meeting these challenges may become more difficult as Congress has been thrown into turmoil in the wake of the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by President Trump's supporters.

As president, Biden can take administrative action through executive orders, which do not require congressional approval. (See Short Feature.) But he is likely to face court challenges if opponents believe he is exceeding his authority. Those challenges could end up before a Supreme Court that has become much more conservative with the appointment of three justices by Trump.

How Biden navigates these hurdles and contending forces will determine the success of his presidency — and the course of the nation under his stewardship. First elected to the Senate in 1972 just days before he reached the legal minimum age of 30, Biden, now 78, brings five decades of experience in Washington to the task, more than any previous president. Biden has long prided himself on his ability to work with politicians from both parties. But with voters and lawmakers sharply divided along partisan lines and Democrats holding only a hair's-breadth majority in the Senate, political analysts say Biden has a difficult path to tread.

“The president-elect as president will have to make some choices within this broad agenda that he was not required to make within the campaign,” says William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank in Washington. “And those choices will thrill some people and annoy others. The choices will be a matter of sequence [on what comes first], but they'll have implications because if you're far back in the queue, you may not get your favorite issue teed up during the first two years.”

Biden has been clear that his first priority will be tackling the coronavirus crisis. He signaled the urgency by naming a 13-member transition COVID advisory panel composed of health experts only two days after claiming victory. Biden had heavily criticized the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus during the campaign, particularly Trump's dismissal of advice from medical experts, and he drew a sharp contrast when announcing the panel. “Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts,” Biden said.4

The successful effort by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to push a $900 billion economic relief bill through Congress before Christmas indicates Biden may find support across party lines for a heightened U.S. response to the pandemic. And the fact that Democrats will control the Senate removes a potential impediment to Biden's initiatives, says George Edwards, a political science professor at Texas A&M University. “Agenda-setting is the first big step,” he says. “If you don't have that, you don't have anything.”

But Biden's campaign platform includes a wide range of plans likely to spark controversy and opposition.

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He has proposed raising taxes on corporations, and on Americans making more than $400,000 a year. He calls for investing $1.3 trillion in infrastructure, with much of that investment focused on helping the United States achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 to battle climate change.

Biden would make health care insurance available to more Americans by expanding the Affordable Care Act. He has called for canceling up to $10,000 in student loan debt and would make public colleges and universities tuition-free for families earning less than $125,000 a year.

He would expand the power of the U.S. Justice Department to tackle misconduct in police departments and would reverse most Trump immigration policies, ending the separation of the children of undocumented immigrants from their parents.5

The sweeping nature of Biden's agenda reflects, in part, the priorities of a diverse coalition of voters who made his election possible, including African Americans, younger voters, urban residents and suburbanites, particularly suburban women.6 As he takes office and seeks to enact his priorities, one question will be whether he can hold his coalition together.

“One of Biden's challenges from the day he won the Democratic nomination was to balance and conciliate the multiple factions within the Democratic Party, and his legislative agenda is going to have to continue that process,” says Galston. “And it won't be easy.”

Yet some political analysts believe Biden's victory was not closely tied to his campaign platform, but rather to his empathetic and temperate personality, which contrasted with Trump's sharper, more confrontational approach. “He didn't really run on the agenda that his campaign produced,” says Yuval Levin, director of social, cultural and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning Washington research organization. “I think most people who voted for Biden weren't voting for one of the big plans on the website … I think in a funny way Biden ran on a kind of a modest plan of governing.”

Whether a more moderate agenda will receive a welcoming response from Republicans is an open question. Former Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., served in the Senate from 1987 to 2005, a period of steadily increasing partisanship. But Daschle says the divisions have grown much worse since then, lowering the chances for cooperation. One of the key differences, he says, is that the bases of both parties are more energized and less willing to see their leaders compromise. “The extraordinary leverage that political bases now have on the right and left, but especially on the right, that base pressure is just enormous,” he says.

Daschle cites the willingness of a majority of Republicans to back Trump's unsubstantiated claims that the election was stolen from him through voting fraud as an example of how uncompromising the party's base has become. “We've seen that in full display in the last several weeks now,” he says.7

Trump's efforts to reverse the outcome of the election came to a head when he urged Georgia's secretary of state on Jan. 2 to “find” enough votes to flip that state to him, and then exhorted a crowd of supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress was convening to certify Biden's victory. Many of those marchers then stormed the Capitol and disrupted the certification for several hours. At least five people died amid the ensuing chaos.8

Backers of President Trump surge through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress was meeting to certify Biden's win. Trump encouraged a crowd of supporters to march to the building, leading to a disorder that stunned the country and the world. (Getty Images/Win McNamee)

Biden has already announced several Cabinet nominees. (See Short Feature.) They have not included two favorites of progressives, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., or Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.9 The appointments so far have, by and large, included members of the Democratic Party establishment, says Levin. Other analysts note Biden had avoided conservative choices that would raise liberal objections while also seeking to fulfill his promise to assemble a diverse staff and Cabinet that “looks like America.”10

Progressive activists have reportedly turned their focus to influencing Biden's initial policy goals, working with incoming administration officials on key areas such as economic policy, immigration reform, public education and efforts to combat systematic racism.11

“We're of the mindset, stay big, stay bold,” says Reggie Hubbard, congressional liaison and strategist for MoveOn.org, the online liberal group. It was the strength of the Democratic Party's largely progressive agenda that helped assemble the broad, multiracial coalition that led it to victory, he says. Biden won over 15 million more votes than 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton got, and Hubbard says the improvement “wasn't because you were saying ‘stay where we are.’”12

The likelihood of Republican opposition does not change the situation, says Hubbard, because the president needs to lead, regardless. “It's the job of the executive branch to set the tone, so they need to respond to the major problems of the day with big, bold policies, and the solutions need to be equal to the size of the problem,” he says, adding there is little benefit in setting more modest goals. “We all know how Washington works. If you propose something small, you're going to get something smaller.”

As the Biden administration takes shape and establishes its priorities, these are some of the questions central to its future:

Can Biden win enough Republican support to advance his agenda?

Democrats entered the 2020 election with high hopes of regaining the majority in the U.S. Senate, giving the party full control of both Congress and the White House and greatly improving Biden's chances of enacting key parts of his legislative agenda.

After losing several Senate contests in November they had hoped to win, Biden's party gained control of the Senate on Jan. 5 — but by the narrowest possible margin. The victories of Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia's runoff elections produced a 50-50 tie, which Vice President Kamala Harris will be able to break in the Democrats' favor.

This will allow the new Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to bring Biden's proposals up for consideration. If all 50 Democrats remain united, it will permit Biden to win approval of Cabinet and judicial nominations, as well as certain types of budget measures, which require only a simple majority for Senate passage. (Democrats also control the House, although with a reduced majority.)

But for many of his proposals, Biden will need some Republican support. It takes 60 votes in the Senate to cut off debate on most bills, a rule that can be wielded by a determined minority to block or “filibuster” a bill to keep it from coming up for a final vote.13

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has a history of thwarting Democratic initiatives. He succeeded in blocking many of President Barack Obama's proposals, even when Democrats had control of the Senate from 2009 to 2015. And Trump's divisive presidency has only exacerbated the country's polarized political climate, making it even harder now to achieve bipartisan compromises, experts say.

However, the American Enterprise Institute's Levin believes there will be opportunities for Biden to reach agreement with Republicans. “I think there are some relatively achievable types of compromise,” says Levin. For example, he thinks Biden would be able to round up Republican support for automatically increasing the federal minimum wage — currently $7.25 an hour — in step with inflation. This would accomplish a Democratic goal of raising the minimum wage, although not as much as some party members want.

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Levin also says common ground is possible on criminal justice reform, partly because federal authority over law enforcement, largely a state and local responsibility, is limited. “There are some Republicans who want to be seen as responsive and taking action on policing issues,” he says. Levin adds that some Republicans might agree to support writing into law the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children with their parents, the so-called Dreamers, to stay, in return for stricter enforcement of immigration law in other areas. Obama created DACA by executive order in 2012, and it has been subjected to legal challenges ever since.

Levin believes personal relationships between members of the two parties still matter on Capitol Hill, and that Biden and McConnell have a better connection than McConnell did with Obama. “His relationship with Joe Biden is going to be very different than his relationship with Obama,” Levin says of McConnell. “They served in the Senate together for 35 years, and I think that will make a difference.”

Former House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said the two have found a way to work together productively in the past. “I've been in the middle of more deals between Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell and the Congress than you can count during the years that I was speaker and Obama was president,” said Boehner. “Obama wasn't much of a negotiator, and when something had to get negotiated, Joe was the guy.”14

Joseph Pika, a professor emeritus of political history at the University of Delaware in the new president's home state, says Biden's relationships with Republican senators and the willingness of a handful of moderate Republicans such as Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah to work across party lines means Biden could find support on some issues. “It will only take one or two to shift the balance, so individual senators who are moderates or persuadable on particular subjects become enormously influential,” he says.

But Pika believes any such agreements will be modest ones, achieved on legislation that works along the margins when it is mutually beneficial to both parties. Despite Biden's years in the Senate with McConnell, Pika does not believe the personal relationship will shift the basic stance of noncooperation Republicans adopted during the Obama administration. “Will he ever be able to negotiate a larger deal with Mitch McConnell? I would say recent experience suggests no,” says Pika.

Larry Sabato, a political scientist who heads the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, describes bipartisanship as “dead as a doornail.” He says Biden and McConnell's amiable past relationship could shift the tone on Capitol Hill, but little else. “The Republicans in the Senate will be doing anything they can to put roadblocks in the way,” he says.

Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, says larger political forces could stifle any chance of significant compromise. Dagnes, the author of Super Mad at Everything All the Time: Modern Media & Our National Anger, says rank-and-file Republicans have little interest in compromise with Democrats, whom right-wing media portray as traitors or worse. Even if Republican lawmakers want to work with Biden, the party's base will make it difficult, she says, particularly because Trump, who has given no indication he will acknowledge he lost the election even after leaving office, is likely to continue to inflame partisan division. “They do not have the freedom because they will be excoriated by the ex-president. They will lose their base,” she says.

One consequence of the narrow Democratic majorities is that the power of individual lawmakers to delay or block legislation will be enhanced, Sabato and Edwards say. “Tight divisions in each chamber of Congress give almost everybody disproportionate power because you need their votes so desperately,” Edwards says.

Will Biden be able to hold together progressives and moderates in the Democratic coalition?

Critical to Biden's victory was his ability to unite the progressive and centrist wings of the Democratic Party, which shared the overriding goal of defeating Trump. But as Biden turns from campaigning to governing, the division between the two wings has erupted again in public.

Centrist and progressive House Democrats traded blame during an angry conference call in November following their party's unexpected losses in congressional elections, which left their party clinging to a reduced majority in the House as Republicans gained at least 13 seats.15

The centrists blamed progressive policy ideas such as “Medicare for All,” a proposal for a universal government-run health care program, and the Green New Deal, an ambitious plan to move the country away from fossil fuels, for costing the party seats in less liberal districts. Progressives responded that they need to speak up for their constituents and the issues they believe in and that progressive policies energized Democratic voters, boosting turnout nationally.16

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. (left), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduce their Green New Deal proposal outside the Capitol in 2019. Progressives have urged Biden to pursue a liberal agenda, but moderate Democrats say such proposals cost the party congressional seats in the 2020 election. (Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)

Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker says Democratic control of the Senate could make it more challenging for Biden to hold the two wings of his party together, because the more liberal members of the House will be emboldened to push a more progressive agenda. “Should they start to move legislation that's pretty far to the left, then I think there's a problem,” he says.

Despite these tensions, Matt Bennett, executive vice president for public affairs at Third Way, a Washington think tank that champions moderate center-left ideas, believes fears of a split are overstated. “Civil wars don't happen in parties that have the White House.” he says. “The lid stays on. There will be debates. There will be a lot of debate. There will not be open warfare. The White House has the ability to squash that.”

Bennett also says the gap is not as significant as it once was. “There has been a real change in the things that divide moderates and progressives,” he says. “Back in the '90s, these things were largely cultural issues: guns, LGBT equality, abortion, immigration. With a few exceptions, and they're fairly small, those disagreements have disappeared. Everyone in the party is pretty unified on those issues.”

Where disagreement still exists, Bennett says, the argument is more about the route Democrats should take than the destination. For example, he notes, both progressives and centrists recognize climate change requires a huge response — but centrists believe calling for an immediate halt to fracking, a method that extracts oil and natural gas by injecting chemicals deep underground, or ending other fossil fuel industries antagonizes voters who work in those industries without making success more likely. When it comes to health care, he adds, both wings of the party want every American to have access to medical coverage, but centrists believe a role remains for private insurance, which is still popular with the public.17

Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, a grassroots group that originally supported democratic socialist Sanders in the presidential contest, struck a more measured tone on the prospect of centrists and progressives working together. “It'll play out, issue by issue,” says Minsky.

Progressives do recognize some of their priorities are unlikely to advance under Biden, who did not support them during the campaign, he says. For example, Medicare for All is “pretty much off the table under a Biden administration,” Minsky continues, “and progressives are delusional if they think otherwise.”

But they will continue to press their agenda in other areas, he says, both within the party and publicly. “We're interested in redistributive economics. We're interested in environmental regulation. We're interested in [economic] stimulus directed at Main Street and not Wall Street,” Minsky says.

And Minsky says he expects the party to move quickly to bring the For the People Act, which passed the House last year on a party-line vote, to the floor. The bill would expand voting rights, limit the influence of big-money donors in politics and strengthen political ethics rules. “On that particular issue, I don't think progressives will waiver, and are in harmony with the [Democrats'] moderate wing that the Republican Party is actively pursuing a perversion of our system and something needs to be done to rectify it,” he says.

Minsky characterized Biden's stated willingness to work with McConnell as “the worrying side of Joe Biden…. If we find Joe Biden is very significantly seeking compromise, we'll speak out, because it's a fool's errand. There's very little Mitch McConnell supports that's in line with the progressive agenda.”

Minsky calls progressive policies the route to electoral success for Democrats. “The Democratic Party needs right now to differentiate itself from the Republican Party so that going into the midterm elections, it's clear what they stand for and what the Republicans are blocking and why they're blocking it,” he says. “To not do that is an absolute recipe for disaster.”

However, Daschle, the former Democratic Senate leader, believes Biden has no choice but to find places where he can reach agreement with at least a few Republicans. “He's going to get a lot of base pressure to move to the left,” Daschle said. “The only way he can accomplish his agenda, as much as he might like to be more progressive, is if he stays relatively centrist — left-of-center clearly, but moderation is going to be key to his ability to get anything done.”

Holding the two sides of the party together “will call upon all of the political skills Biden's had a chance to develop in his 50 years in political office,” says the Brookings Institution's Galston.

Can Biden reduce the social unrest tied to police treatment of Black Americans?

The mass protests against racial injustice and police treatment of minorities that swept the United States this summer may have been the largest in U.S. history. As many as 26 million Americans joined marches and other gatherings organized by Black Lives Matter, the racial justice movement, to demand sweeping changes in society following the deaths at the hands of police of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. The movement's demands included action to defund the police, cutting law enforcement budgets to invest in social programs.18

The two presidential candidates' reactions to the protests formed a stark contrast. Trump referred to protestors as “thugs” and “terrorists,” stressing the violence that broke out at some demonstrations. While Biden rejected violence and did not support defunding the police, he expressed sympathy for the movement, emphasizing it was time for the country “to deal with systematic racism.”19

Now, as Biden enters the White House, those on both sides of the debate over policing and other racial justice issues are watching his words — and actions — closely.

In some ways, Biden was not a natural candidate for Black voters. As a young senator in the 1970s, he opposed federally enforced busing of schoolchildren to desegregate public schools. He also played a lead role in passing the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which many criminal justice reform advocates blame for a dramatic rise in the incarceration of Black men.20

But Biden built a close relationship with Obama, the country's first Black president, while serving as his vice president, and Obama's trust in Biden forged a connection between Biden and African Americans, said Theodore Johnson, senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute at New York University Law School. Black voters also recognized Biden had the best chance of defeating Trump, who had not only attacked Black Lives Matter, but defended white nationalist groups, Johnson said.21

President Barack Obama (right) and his vice president, Joe Biden, attend a Cabinet meeting in 2009. Biden's close relationship with Obama helped him to earn trust among Black voters who provided pivotal support in the 2020 election. (Getty Images/Corbis Historical/ImageCatcher News Service)

The support of Black and younger voters, who fueled the protests, was critical to Biden's victory. After declining in 2016, turnout among Black voters increased in 2020 and 87 percent cast their ballot for Biden, according to exit polls. Young voters, those ages 18 to 24, also turned out at a higher rate than in 2016 and favored the Democratic candidate, 65 percent to 31 percent. According to polls, African Americans and young voters of all races considered racism to be among their top issues in the election.22

Biden acknowledged the role Black voters played in sending him to the White House in his victory speech, saying, “when this campaign was at its lowest, the African American community stood up again for me. They always have my back, and I'll have yours.”23

Biden has proposed a list of programs to boost economic development and opportunity in minority neighborhoods. He has also stated his administration will “root out the racial, gender and income-based disparities” in the criminal justice system and work to reduce the number of people imprisoned in the United States, while also reducing crime.24

But Biden does not support the cuts in police budgets many activists have called for, leading reform advocates to doubt his administration will bring significant changes for Black America. “I'm very pessimistic about what we can expect, at least initially, from the Biden administration,” said Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College in New York and author of The End of Policing, which calls for alternatives to policing. “He's made it very clear that he wants to put more resources into policing, that he supports the kind of superficial and ineffective procedural reforms that the Obama administration proposed.”25

However, other activists believe Biden can make a difference. Hubbard of MoveOn.org says Biden has already taken the first step by publicly recognizing the injustice and prejudice Blacks and other minorities face in the criminal justice system, which he says Trump refused to acknowledge.

Hubbard believes Biden could spur change by “using the White House to convene meetings to start a national conversation … on racial justice, and then having leading activists and police chiefs, because they have to be part of the solution, and mental health experts take part. It may not result in change at the national policy level, but it could seed action at lower levels…. The local level is where progressive policy normally [first] takes shape in the United States.”

But Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, a Black activist in Philadelphia, said Biden and running mate Harris' record on racial issues makes him doubt they will back the changes necessary to tackle the root causes of police brutality and poverty in Black neighborhoods. “We know with Biden or Kamala Harris in office, we're still going to need to organize, and we're still going to have to fight for our material conditions to shift,” he said.26

Several political observers pointed to the significance of Biden's choice of Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, as his running mate, as well as his promise to assemble a racially and gender diverse administration. “Symbolism is important in politics, and he can do a lot of things for Blacks so they know they've got a friend in the White House,” says Edwards, the Texas A&M professor, who also is the editor of the academic journal Presidential Studies Quarterly.

But as far as using the platform of the presidency, sometimes referred to as the bully pulpit, to change racial attitudes, Edwards believes the power of a president's words is overrated. “The bully pulpit generally convinces people of nothing,” he says. “You should not expect that Biden, through his rhetoric, will be able to change people's minds about something fundamental like racism. I wish he could.”

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Background

Past Transitions

On March 4, 1801, John Adams, the second president of the United States, quietly departed Washington. His unassuming exit, on the day his rival Thomas Jefferson was about to be inaugurated, marked the first transfer of power between political opponents in the history of the presidency.

Adams, a member of the Federalist Party, served as vice president to George Washington before succeeding him in office. Although Washington never officially joined the Federalists, his sympathies were clearly aligned with the party, making the first presidential transition in 1797 one between allies.

The election of 1800 was different. Adams and Jefferson, once friends, had become bitter opponents, and the contest between the Federalists and Jefferson's Democrat-Republican Party included harsh personal attacks on both sides.27

Adam's departure from office set a precedent for the peaceful transfer of the presidency from one political party to another. America has held a presidential election during a Civil War (1864); two were decided by the U.S. House of Representatives when no candidate won an electoral-vote majority (1800 and 1825); one was settled by a congressional compromise (1877) and one was effectively called by the U.S. Supreme Court (2000). But in every case, the loser has accepted the results, however fiercely contested the election.28

President Trump's refusal to acknowledge he lost and his ultimately unsuccessful efforts to overturn the results through lawsuits, demands for recounts and the personal lobbying of federal and state officials was unprecedented. “It's distinctive, in that the losing candidate is refusing to concede and doing everything he can to incite opposition. We've never had that before,” says presidential scholar Edwards.29

Biden enters office dealing with the lingering effects of Trump's denial of defeat, which led to a lack of cooperation between Trump administration officials and Biden's transition team, slowing the new administration's preparations to take the reins of government.30

Biden has indicated he still plans to act quickly on multiple fronts after taking office, including immigration, environmental policy and pandemic relief. In doing so, he will be following a tradition established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 during the Great Depression. Roosevelt, swept into power along with large Democratic majorities in Congress, signed a flurry of legislation, 76 separate laws, in his first 100 days in office to address the nation's economic crisis.31

Since Roosevelt, the first 100 days have become a measuring stick for early success, a time when new presidents seek to take advantage of a period of goodwill, sometimes referred to as a honeymoon, to press for bold action. Since Roosevelt, other presidents, including Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Obama, have had success pressing key parts of their agenda early in their terms.

Research by political scientists has shown that presidents do enjoy a 100-day honeymoon during which they are more likely to have legislative success. However, the scholars also found that the number of major laws presidents have been able to shepherd through Congress has shrunk in recent decades, as partisanship has become stronger on Capitol Hill and lawmakers find it harder to reach agreement.32

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an emergency banking act in March 1933, one of 76 laws that were passed during his first 100 days in office. Roosevelt's success during this period established a standard for measuring presidential achievement in the early days of a term. (Getty Images/Bettmann/Contributor)

Edwards says the idea that presidents once took office awash in bipartisan good feeling is overstated. “The administrations that were successful early had an opportunity,” Edwards says. “But it was an opportunity not provided by a honeymoon, but by big majorities in Congress that they exploited or big election victories that gave them a clear mandate.”

Biden won the 2020 election with the support of a record number of voters and a majority in both the popular vote and Electoral College, but he faces a significant number of Republican lawmakers in Washington and Republican voters throughout the country who have been largely unwilling even to recognize the legitimacy of his victory. Edwards expects his period of comity with Congress to be limited — or nonexistent. “Whatever there may have been, there's nothing like a honeymoon now,” Edwards says. “When you have a polarized Congress, nobody's going to give you a break.”

Long Road to the Presidency

Biden will be the oldest president in history. He had two earlier, failed campaigns for president and spent 36 years in the Senate before becoming vice president in 2009 under Obama. Over the years, he has also suffered repeated personal challenges and tragedies.

On Dec. 18, 1972, less than two months after he was first elected to the Senate, Biden's first wife, Neilia, and their infant daughter, Amy, were killed in a car accident that also left his two young sons, Hunter and Beau, seriously injured. Consumed with anger and grief, Biden at first did not want to take his Senate seat. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, D-Mont., convinced him to stay in office for at least six months, but Biden decided he would take the train back to Wilmington, Del., every working night to be with his sons. Biden married his second wife, Jill, in 1977, but continued the daily commute until 2008.33

Senator-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Neilia, cut his 30th birthday cake at a party on Nov. 20, 1972, shortly after he was elected to the Senate. Less than a month later, his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash that also seriously injured his two sons. (Getty Images/Bettmann/Contributor)

The accident that killed his wife and daughter was not the last personal crisis Biden would face. In 1988, shortly after ending his first run for president, Biden, who had been dealing with severe headaches during the campaign, collapsed in a hotel room in Rochester, N.Y. Doctors found two life-threatening brain aneurisms that required surgery. His recovery took seven months. Years later, in 2015, while he was vice president, Biden's oldest son Beau, 46, died of brain cancer.34

Biden was still dealing with his grief over Beau when the 2016 campaign for president began, and he decided not to run. His decision seemed likely, at the time, to mark the end of a decades-long ambition.

Biden first ran for president in 1987 as a 44-year-old senator with what was considered a gift for oratory but a reputation for going on too long. His campaign ended when he was found to have made exaggerated claims about his biography and to have plagiarized speeches by Robert Kennedy and British politician Neil Kinnock. He acquired a reputation for exaggeration, misstatements and verbal gaffes that would dog him all the way into his 2020 campaign.35

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden also found himself in the spotlight during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Bork, nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the court in 1987, was rejected by the Senate after Biden conducted hearings that focused on Bork's staunchly right-wing views. Conservatives considered the hearings an act of character assassination.36

The hearings for Thomas, nominated by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, were even more contentious. They exposed Biden to fierce criticism for his handling of sexual harassment charges made against Thomas by Anita Hill, who had worked for the nominee in two federal agencies. Liberals were incensed over what they regarded as Republican senators' mistreatment of Hill during the hearings and felt Biden should have stepped in to prevent it. Hill's supporters also were angered that Biden did not allow testimony from three women who said they were prepared to corroborate Hill's story. Thomas was eventually confirmed by the Senate, although Biden voted against him, and still serves on the court. Biden has expressed regret over how he allowed Hill to be treated.37

Biden's 2008 run for the presidency was brief. He withdrew after winning only 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses, the first test of the campaign. Early in that election cycle, he added to his reputation for gaffes by calling Obama “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” a comment he soon expressed regret for making.38

However, after Obama selected him as his running mate, Biden played an important role in several administration initiatives. He negotiated a budget agreement with Republican leader McConnell in 2011 that avoided drastic automatic cuts in spending and headed a special White House task force on gun control. Obama put Biden in charge of managing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, although a deteriorating security situation there later led to the return of some troops. Biden also made news in 2012 by declaring his support for same-sex marriage at a time when Obama had not yet done so.39

Pika, the University of Delaware political scientist, has followed Biden's career since he was first elected to Congress. Pika says he has seen Biden grow and change over the years. “The current version of Joe Biden that we're seeing as president-elect is different from the Joe Biden of most of his career,” says Pika. “I think he listens better than he did. I think he projects less of an image of certainty now, not less of an image of confidence, but less of an image of ‘I know the answer, just listen to me and I'll give the answer.’”

Pike adds that an empathy forged through personal experience has also become one of Biden's strengths. “He's been very open about the crises of his own life, and that helps him come across as more authentic and genuine,” he says. “It's not calculated. He's just more willing to open up and talk about his personal losses than many politicians are. And he's had mammoth ones. They've been enormous.”

Partisan Divisions Grow

The United States has not always been as divided ideologically and politically as it is today. In the 1950s, the Republican and Democratic parties both held the allegiance of voters from the left and right. Political polarization was at such a low ebb that, historian Jill Lepore wrote, voters “had a hard time figuring out which party was conservative and which was liberal.”40

The partisan divide began to grow in the 1960s as battles over civil rights, the Vietnam War and social programs more sharply divided conservatives and liberals. But most scholars trace the beginning of the current era of hyperpartisanship to the 1980s, which saw changes in both the media landscape and the political environment on Capitol Hill.

In the early 1980s, Newt Gingrich, a young Republican congressman from Georgia, upended tradition by bringing a new level of partisan combativeness to the House. Gingrich gathered a group of like-minded Republican lawmakers together in the Conservative Opportunity Society, which laid out a bold agenda, but also attacked opponents in harshly personal terms.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich holds up a copy of his Republican Party's “Contract with America” in February 1995. Gingrich's combative tactics helped his party win control of Congress in the 1994 midterm election, and played a role in increasing partisan rancor. (AFP/Getty Images/Joshua Roberts)

Gingrich distributed a memo, “Language, a Key Mechanism of Control,” that included 64 words to be used repeatedly against Democrats. They included “decay,” “traitors,” “radical,” “sick,” “pathetic,” “corrupt” and “shame.” When Republicans won control of both chambers of Congress by gaining 54 House seats and eight Senate seats in the 1994 midterm elections, the hard-edged tactics seemed to have worked.41

As Gingrich was honing his methods, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1987 announced it would no longer enforce the Fairness Doctrine, a policy requiring broadcasters to present both sides of political issues. The death of the doctrine spawned talk radio. By 1995, 1,130 all-talk stations were broadcasting. The format proved overwhelmingly popular with conservatives, who felt they had been excluded from mainstream media.

The revolution was led by Rush Limbaugh, whose show was drawing 20 million listeners by 1994. Limbaugh, with his attacks on feminists as “feminazis” and liberals as “commie-libs,” brought a brand of political vitriol to the airwaves that became commonplace as other talk show hosts followed his lead. Fox News, which hit the air in 1996, provided TV viewers a 24-hour news channel with a conservative tilt. MSNBC, launched the same year, would eventually evolve as a liberal counterpoint to Fox. 42

In the early 2000s, the birth of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter provided another avenue for sharing information and opinion. Political analysts note that the speed at which rumor and misinformation can spread on social media has played a big role in the overheated nature of modern discourse. “Polarization is weaponized by social media,” says Rutgers University's Baker. “Polarization on its own would be deleterious. With social media it becomes toxic.”

Former Senate Majority Leader Daschle says all these factors contributed to the collapse of congressional bipartisanship. “Times have changed dramatically in the last 20 years,” says Daschle. “I had the good fortune to work with somebody who become a very good personal friend, Trent Lott,” the Republican Senate leader at the time. “Trent and I faced a lot of things together. Unfortunately, that chemistry doesn't exist between the two leaders today.”

Not all analysts believe the nation's deep divisions are destined to last. Robert Putnam, a public policy professor at Harvard University, is the co-author of The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. Putnam draws a parallel with the Gilded Age, a period at the end of the 19th century that was scarred by sharp social divisions, but was followed by an era of progressive legislation and community activism. He feels the same thing is happening today with younger people. “Youth are where the action is,” Putnam says. He sees younger Americans as willing to engage and cross social and political lines.

However, the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based research organization, found that overall antipathy toward members of the other political party grew more intense and personal from 2016 to 2019, particularly among Republicans. Pew's survey of nearly 10,000 Americans found the hostility extended beyond politics: A majority in both parties say members of the opposing party do not share their values.43

Trump, with his penchant for tweeting personal attacks on his opponents, is widely credited with furthering partisan division. “It's not as if Donald Trump rode into town and everybody became very polarized. It's been brewing for a long time,” says Dagnes, the Shippensburg University professor. But she adds, “He has made it exponentially more polarized. Division is where he lives. His governing ethos has been not just you're with me or against me; it's you like me or I call you a bad name, and that is so profoundly damaging.”

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Current Situation

COVID-19 Policy

With two vaccines for COVID-19 gaining federal approval, Biden says his administration will get at least “100 million COVID vaccine shots into the arms of the American people” in his first 100 days in office. He has not detailed how such an ambitious program will be operated, beyond vowing to run “the most efficient mass vaccination plan in U.S. history.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a news conference on Dec. 8 in Wilmington, Del. Biden named Fauci as his chief medical adviser earlier that month and has said his administration will make fighting COVID-19 a top priority. (Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)

The vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna each require two doses, so 100 million shots does not mean 100 million people will be fully vaccinated. The U.S. government currently has 100 million doses on order from each company, with Pfizer's expected to arrive first. Pfizer has agreed to supply the government with an additional 100 million doses by the end of July, the company said in December. However, as of the end of that month, the vaccination effort had fallen well behind schedule, with only about 2.8 million people having received a first dose — far short of the goal of 20 million set by federal officials.44

Biden's transition team said on Jan. 8 that he plans to release nearly all available doses immediately, rather than holding back half to guarantee adequate supplies for a second dose. Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act, if necessary, to ensure that enough vaccine is available for a second dose, a Biden official said. A spokesman for the Trump administration's vaccine program criticized the move, saying it was contrary to “data and science.”45

Biden has announced a team of health experts to battle the pandemic that includes Dr. Anthony Fauci, who will serve as Biden's chief medical adviser while continuing in his current role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Biden has also promised a massive expansion of COVID-19 testing to track and defeat the disease.

“My first 100 days won't end the COVID-19 virus — I can't promise that,” Mr. Biden said when introducing his team, but he added, “I'm absolutely convinced that in 100 days we can change the course of the disease and change life in America for the better.”46

Tax Rates

Biden's economic and tax policies face perhaps the steepest road of any part of his agenda, given Republicans' fundamental opposition to raising tax rates and their belief in a more limited economic role for government.

Biden campaigned on a plan to raise taxes for individuals making more than $400,000 annually, boosting the top rate to 39.6 percent from the current 37 percent. He would also increase the tax on capital gains, the profits made from investments, by taxing them at the same rate as regular income for those making more than $1 million a year. In addition, Biden says he wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, up from 21 percent that was set by legislation championed by Trump in 2017. But Biden would expand low-income tax credits for those with modest earnings.47

Taken in total, Biden's plans would raise an estimated $2.1 trillion in additional revenue over the next decade, substantially increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans while shrinking them for low-income households, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research institute in Washington.48

While Biden supported the relief bill passed by Congress in December, he also says he will press for more economic aid to deal with the impact of the pandemic. “It's just a down payment,” he said of the bill. “This is not the end deal.” One possible initiative is to revive the idea of providing a $2,000 stimulus payment to most Americans, which was left out of the December measure because of opposition in the Senate.49

Biden's campaign platform also outlined plans to help American business and industry by eliminating loopholes and waivers in the government's “Buy American” requirements for federal purchases. To spur the economy, he promises to invest an additional $400 billion in targeted government purchases of American-made goods.50

A major focus of those investments will be clean-energy vehicles and other technology as part of a commitment to invest in infrastructure that moves the country toward Biden's goal of net-zero U.S. carbon emissions by the year 2050 to battle climate change. Overall, Biden says he will seek to invest $2 trillion, primarily to rebuild and renew U.S. infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water systems and the electrical grid.51

Biden also has said he will initiate a series of government initiatives, refocusing and expanding some federal small-business programs, to increase both private and public investment in rural and minority communities.52

Health Care

Defending the Affordable Care Act, often known as Obamacare, is a priority of the incoming administration, but legislative action to expand the program is expected to meet stiff resistance from a Republican Party, which has attacked the law since its inception.

Still, Biden is promising to push for adding a public option to the act that would allow consumers to get health insurance from the government, if they choose. He also has said he will boost the tax credit for insurance payments and eliminate the income cap on those credits, making them available to all Americans.

Finally, Biden's plan would expand health care coverage for lower-income individuals by making the public option available free to anyone who would have qualified for the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid in the 14 states that have so far refused to expand benefits. Biden's campaign estimates that would provide health insurance to an additional 4.9 million Americans.53

Reversing Trump Policies

Biden is expected to take action as early as his first day in office to reverse several of Trump's policies, particularly in the areas of foreign policy, immigration and the environment.

Biden has said he will “end the Muslim ban on day one,” referring to the order Trump issued on day 12 of his presidency blocking travel to the United States from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria by suspending visa applications from those Muslim-majority nations.54

He is also expected to act quickly to rejoin the Paris Agreement, an international treaty to battle climate change. Trump announced the United States was withdrawing from the accord in 2017, saying the agreement would damage the U.S. economy, and the withdrawal became effective in November.55

Biden has promised to ban oil and gas drilling on public lands and to reverse regulatory moves by the Trump administration to weaken the Clean Air and Clean Water Act and environmental protections for wetlands and migratory birds. But legal analysts doubt he will be able to act quickly in many cases because his moves will have to work their way through the federal regulatory process and also are likely, in some cases, to draw legal challenges that end up in court.56

Biden has said he will promptly rejoin the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations agency responsible for promoting public health internationally. This summer, Trump notified the WHO that the United States would be withdrawing from the organization because he was unhappy with its handling of the coronavirus — especially what the administration called the WHO's failure to criticize China's lack of transparency early in the outbreak. The withdrawal, which cut off the largest source of funding for the agency in the midst of the global pandemic, was widely criticized both in the United States and internationally.57

Biden says he will reach out to America's traditional democratic allies in Europe and Asia to re-establish relationships that have frayed as Trump has taken a more confrontational and nationalist approach to foreign affairs. Trump had defended his approach by arguing that other nations had frequently taken advantage of the United States.58

Trump made repeated attempts to end the DACA program, which affects about 644,000 young undocumented immigrants. Biden intends to reinstate the program by executive order and to seek legislation to make it permanent.

Biden also has said he will end the Trump administration's policy of separating unauthorized immigrant children from their parents and will create a task force to reunite those that have been separated.59

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Outlook

Trump's Impact

Political analysts say the success of Biden's administration will first be determined by his ability to shepherd the nation through what should be, with vaccinations and other measures, the last stages of the pandemic. His prospects will also depend on his ability to find common ground with at least a few Republican lawmakers on some legislative initiatives while keeping the left wing of his own party on board and bringing down the level of partisan division in the country.

But in a situation unique in U.S. history, analyst say, Biden's ability to move the country forward will also depend on whether Trump ever accepts his defeat and whether he continues to strike out against any Republican who breaks from the ranks of Trump loyalists.

“I'm fairly hopeful,” says Rutgers University's Baker about Biden's chances for success. “But like so many things, it depends on Trump's behavior. If Trump continues to whip up fervor in his public, it's going to be tough for everybody. I can't think of a single individual in public office who has been so influential.”

Harvard's Putnam believes Trump's hold on many of his supporters could fade. “I can imagine a world in which gradually over the next six months … a large part of that group, not the Proud Boys [an all-male white nationalist group], but others, maybe 40 percent of the country that voted for Trump, [says] ‘Well, OK, it's not what I voted for, but let's try to see if we can make the thing work the next four years.”

Levin, of the American Enterprise Institute, agrees. “My sense is that [Trumpism] will be very much around in the first year of the Biden presidency. I don't think it lasts much longer than that,” he says. Levin also believes Biden could at least modestly reduce the country's hyperpartisan division. “Can he lower the temperature around the presidency? I think he wants to do it, and he will,” Levin says.

Dagnes, the Shippensburg University professor, is not so sure, believing Trump's insistence the election was stolen from him is likely to have a lasting impact. “We are going to see a percentage of the American public who is absolutely going to reject a Biden presidency and say it is illegitimate,” she says.

The University of Virginia's Sabato believes one of the lasting impacts of Biden's presidency will come through his choice of running mate. “Kamala Harris — the symbolic import is enormous. I see this with my students — their eyes get wide. Her choice is huge, particularly for women and minorities,” he says. “I assume she will be actively involved [in Biden's administration] … Having her in a public role is going to have an impact in ways that we may not be able to see for a generation.”

The Brookings Institution's Galston says where Biden decides to focus his legislative efforts will play an important role in his success or failure. Galston notes that Biden has promised to introduce a broad immigration bill as one of his first acts. “The battle for comprehensive immigration reform could conceivably suck up a lot of oxygen,” he says.

Pursuing large-scale, progressive ideas could exhaust the administration's political capital without success, Galston continues. He suggests Biden might fashion a better track record by peeling off smaller pieces of his proposals. “You could push forward with a major expansion of the Affordable Care Act, for example,” he says, “Or you could push forward on a piece of the problem, like the price of prescription drugs.”

The Third Way's Bennett believes Biden will stick to his long-established approach to governing as he establishes his priorities. “He will consult everybody and take things under advisement,” he says, “but ultimately the shape of the Biden package is going to look a lot like what Joe Biden has championed throughout his whole career, which is bold, but mainstream, moderate Democratic ideas.”

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Pro/Con

Will President Biden be able to reduce the bitter partisan divisions that mark today's politics?

Pro Jason Grumet Founder and President, Bipartisan Policy Center. Written for CQ Researcher, January 2021 The reckless effort by some members of Congress on Jan. 6 to disenfranchise millions of voters and the reprehensible violence that followed demonstrate the deep divisions coursing through Congress and our nation. Still, Joe Biden can do a lot to reduce the bitterness that prevents Congress from being both partisan and productive. Biden's commitment to represent all Americans really matters as our nation struggles to overcome public health and economic crises that do not discriminate based on party or geography. These crises enable the incoming president to break from a pattern of pursuing one big legislative accomplishment before hunkering down for the next three years. Absent the pandemic, a new Democratic administration would likely have prioritized big structural challenges such as climate change and immigration. A pandemic response will encourage a more collaborative early agenda focused on public health, working families, economic stimulus and infrastructure. The mixed election results should diminish the time-honored tradition of presidents exaggerating mandates and announcing exuberantly divisive 100-day agendas. The 2022 midterms may better align the pursuit of power with the incentive to govern. Republicans must defend two-thirds of the Senate seats up for election, and seats in several purple states are in play. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is certainly aware that the leftward shift of some Democrats in the recent campaign was not well received in competitive districts. Both dynamics encourage accomplishment over rigidity. Finally, the new president and Congress are considering a number of seemingly modest actions that would strengthen their capacity to reconcile differences and govern. Most efforts to increase bipartisanship focus on the three M's: money, media and ‘mandering (of a gerry nature). These influences are major headwinds to functional democracy, but we make little progress by cursing the storm. Instead, we should focus on a series of achievable reforms, like the nearly 100 proposals recently adopted by the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. Key recommendations include significant improvements in the congressional schedule and initiatives to enable members to spend more time together doing real work. It may sound quaint, but personal relationships remain essential to reconciling differences. Most important is the proposal to restore “community-focused grant programs,” or earmarks. Having deprived members of the ability to advance popular local interests, it's no surprise they are reluctant to take hard votes to advance the national interest. While it may be soaring over a low bar, a combination of presidential character, crisis-driven priorities, 2022 political dynamics and some fine tuning of Congress will enable a President Biden to reduce today's bitter partisan divisions.

Con Norman Ornstein Emeritus Scholar in Politics and Public Opinion, American Enterprise Institute. Written for CQ Researcher, January 2021 Joe Biden has spoken frequently, during the campaign and since, about his optimism that he will find Republican partners in the Senate for many of his initiatives and the nation's priorities. After the past four years, he has said, some Republicans will have an epiphany and return to the mindset of the past, working together to solve problems. I wish I could believe it. But there is nothing in the history of the past decade-plus, or in recent developments, to make wishing so. Let's start with what has happened since an election that Biden won handily — a popular vote margin of 7 million, an electoral vote count, 306, that equals Donald Trump's in 2016 — what Trump aide Kellyanne Conway then called a landslide. Even after networks declared the states that gave Biden victory, less than a handful of Republican senators acknowledged him as president-elect. When the General Services Administration head blocked an orderly transition in violation of the law, only one Republican senator spoke up. Oklahoma's James Lankford said he would step in if the Biden team were denied intelligence briefings. That lasted barely more than a day before Lankford backed off. And when President Trump continued his shocking, lying and illegal attempts to retain power, no Republican leader in Congress raised public objections or did anything to stop the attempted coup. Even after a group of domestic terrorists, incited by Trump, stormed the Capitol, 145 Republican lawmakers voted that Biden's victory was illegitimate. Is there anything in this behavior that would suggest a turnaround in attitude and approach? I doubt it. More significant, look at the reaction of Republicans to Barack Obama, starting with his party's landslide victory in 2008, when he brought in large majorities in the House and Senate. The Republican strategy was to unite as a parliamentary-style minority party, voting against every significant presidential initiative, blocking as many as possible, delegitimizing any policy successes, demonizing the president. The result? A sweeping Republican victory in the 2010 midterms, with the biggest House gains in a century. After Obama won re-election, the Republicans redoubled the obstructionist strategy. The result? Another great midterm victory, winning the majority in the Senate. In a tribal political environment, with Senate Republicans knowing that to cooperate with President Biden when a majority of Republicans, thanks to Trump and his allies, believe his presidency was stolen, will mean fierce criticism, is there any reason to believe things will be different? My answer, when it comes to the big issues and challenges facing the country, sadly, is no.

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Short Features

Presidential Reliance on Executive Orders Rises

As incoming President Joe Biden seeks to put his stamp on federal policy during his first days in office, he can be expected to rely heavily on executive orders, a once obscure administrative tool that has increasingly become a way for presidents to get things done in an era of congressional deadlock.

Biden has indicated he will use executive orders to end President Trump's ban on visitors from Muslim-majority counties, restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allows some unauthorized immigrants who arrived as children to stay in the country, and rejoin the Paris Agreement, the international accord to battle climate change. He has also said he will use executive orders to undo Trump's rollbacks of health and environmental rules.1

Further orders are almost certain. In a private meeting with civil rights leaders after the November election, Biden said he would use his executive authority to “undo every single damn thing [Trump] has done by executive authority.”2

But Biden also spoke of observing some limits, saying some liberal Democrats are urging him to take actions that go beyond the scope of executive authority. “I am not going to violate the Constitution,” he said, listing gun control as an example of an issue that he thinks must be addressed by legislation, not an executive order.3

Supporters of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court last June. The court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to end the program, and incoming President Joe Biden has vowed to protect it. (Getty Images/Drew Angerer)

An executive order is an official directive by the president to a federal agency to take action that can have the power of law. George Washington issued the first one, and they have been employed more than 16,000 times since. But Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, says their legal authority comes more from the fact that the courts have accepted them over time than from any explicit intention of the framers of the Constitution.4

“The authority is basically historical,” says Wehle. “There's nothing expressly in the Constitution that authorized the president to issue executive orders, particularly to the extent that they're used like legislation.”

The legal power of executive orders derives, instead, from authority implied in the third section of Article II of the Constitution, which states that, as commander in chief of the armed forces and head of the executive branch, the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”5

Presidents have used that authority to issue executive orders on matters both routine and significant. In December, Trump issued a directive closing federal offices the day before Christmas, an example of routine government business conducted through executive order. But President Franklin Roosevelt used an executive order to send 120,000 Japanese Americans into detention camps during World War II, a dark mark in U.S. history for which the government formally apologized in 1988.6

In recent administrations, presidents have increasingly turned to executive orders to advance their agendas. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., shares the concern of many political analysts about the growing use of executive orders instead of the legislative process to make policy.

But Daschle says their use reflects how partisan division has largely paralyzed Congress, the lawmaking branch of government. “There's a direct correlation between the dysfunction of Congress and the degree to which executive orders become the option,” he says.

Because they are not legislation, executive orders require no approval from Congress. But Congress can effectively block an order, by cutting off funding, for example. A president can also issue an executive order overturning an order by a former president.7

Wehle notes this can lead to a pingpong effect where reversals in federal policy occur every time the White House changes parties. Recent administrations provide an example. Many of Trump's executive orders reversed those by President Barack Obama, and Biden is now vowing to negate Trump's reversals of Obama's policies, for example, with DACA.

Opponents can challenge an executive order in court. In 1952, steel companies fought an order by President Harry S. Truman taking control of the nation's steel mills during the Korean War. Truman was seeking to avert a strike that threatened to paralyze steel production and, he said, damage the defense industry during wartime.

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the president did not have the right to seize private property. The “President's power, if any, to issue the order must stem either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself,” Justice Hugo Black wrote in the majority opinion.8

With Biden promising to make aggressive use of executive orders, Wehle says there is a good chance the Supreme Court will revisit the question of how far a president can go. “The deep question of the constitutionality of executive orders I don't think has ever been fully litigated by the Supreme Court,” she says. “I think it's just been tolerated.”

— Reed Karaim

[1] Matt Viser, Seung Min Kim and Annie Linsky, “Biden plans immediate flurry of executive orders to reverse Trump policies,” The Washington Post, Nov. 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4tsgewt.

[2] Eric Bradner, “Biden told civil rights leaders in private meeting that progressives' hopes for executive actions are ‘way beyond the bounds’ of his presidential authority,” CNN, Dec. 10, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3kps9r8.

[3] Ibid.

[4] “Executive Order,” History, Aug. 21, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y6rfatb2.

[5] “The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription,” National Archives, May 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/z54xx4s.

[6] “Executive Order on Providing for the Closing of Executive Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government on December 24, 2020,” The White House, Dec. 11, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y6ugyaj6; Katherine Bishop, “Day of Apology and ‘Sigh of Relief,’” The New York Times, Aug. 11, 1988, https://tinyurl.com/yxh8aa4j.

[7] “What Is an Executive Order?” American Bar Association, Oct. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/tr77bjz.

[8] Steve Hendrix, “Truman declared an emergency when he felt thwarted. Trump should know: It didn't end well,” The Washington Post, Jan. 11, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yc3l846b.

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New Cabinet Reflects Diversity, Experience

Incoming President Joe Biden has named his key Cabinet nominees, a list that so far appears on track to fulfill his pledge to assemble a racially diverse and gender-balanced administration.

It also has drawn heavily on centrist Democrats who served in President Barack Obama's administration, something that has drawn criticism from liberals. “We cannot move forward in a new direction with just the same people, including some of the people who are responsible for the mess we are in,” said Evan Weber, political director of the Sunrise Movement, a progressive group focused on climate change.9

But William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a centrist Washington think tank, says Biden's approach shows a respect for the skills needed to govern. “Joe Biden is a professional who has used a professional process to select professionals, and what you get from that is people who are experienced, tested … who understand the actual processes of policymaking in the nation's capital,” he says. “These are huge pluses.”

However, Galston added, “Whether you get an enormous amount of creative thinking through that process is a different question.”

Biden has said he wants Washington experience because of the damage the Trump administration has done to the operations of the federal government. “One of the reasons you need old hands is the old hands know where the old bodies may be buried,” he said in an interview in late December.10

Historically, the Senate, which must confirm Cabinet-level appointments, has granted a president significant latitude in choosing his team. The process has become more contentious for recent administrations as the partisan division in Congress has grown more stark, but with Democratic control of the Senate, most of Biden's choices should be confirmed quickly.

Still, Republicans have criticized some nominees, including Neera Tanden, the outspoken head of a left-leaning think tank, the Center for American Progress, and Xavier Becerra, a former Democratic House member and current California attorney general.11

Liberal groups and some Democrats also have pushed back on a couple of Biden's choices. Black and progressive groups have criticized Tom Vilsack, a former Agriculture secretary who has been nominated for the same position, over his ties to agribusiness and what they call his weak record on supporting small and minority farmers. Biden's choice of former Army Gen. Lloyd Austin for Defense secretary would require a congressional waiver because he has been retired from the military for less than seven years. That has raised concerns with some Democratic senators, who say the requirement that a Pentagon chief be out of the military for several years is important to emphasize civilian control of the armed forces.12

Here are Biden's Cabinet picks:

Merrick Garland, Attorney General. Garland, a federal appeals judge, was nominated for the Supreme Court by Obama in 2016, but Senate consideration of his candidacy was blocked by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury. Yellen served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018 and as head of the White House Council of Economic Advisors during President Bill Clinton's administration. If confirmed, she would be the first woman to run the Treasury Department.

Antony Blinken, Secretary of State. Blinken was deputy secretary of State and deputy national security adviser under Obama and advised Biden on national security when Biden was vice president.

Antony Blinken, incoming President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of State, speaks in November in Wilmington, Del. The choice of Blinken, a veteran of the Obama administration, reflects Biden's interest in filling Cabinet spots with experienced policy professionals. (Getty Images/Mark Makela)

Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense. Austin is a retired four-star general who spent 41 years in the Army. He would be the first African American Defense secretary.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security. Mayorkas served as deputy secretary of Homeland Security during Obama's second term. He would be the first immigrant and first Latino to head this department, which supervises the agencies that enforce U.S. immigration policies.

Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services. Becerra, California's attorney general and a national leader in the legal defense of the Affordable Care Act, would be the first Latino to hold this position.

Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Fudge, a Democratic House member from Ohio, is a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack served in this position in the Obama administration and was previously governor of Iowa.

Denis McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. McDonough was Obama's chief of staff from 2013 to 2017 and previously served as his national security adviser.

Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy. Granholm was governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011.

Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior. Haaland, a House member from New Mexico, would be the first Native American in a Cabinet role, and would run the department that includes the government's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation. The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Buttigieg would be the first openly LGBTQ person to be a Cabinet member.

Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education. Cardona, the education commissioner of Connecticut, is a former teacher and assistant school superintendent.

Michael Regan, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency. Regan worked in this agency during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and currently heads North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality.

Marty Walsh, Secretary of Labor. The mayor of Boston, Walsh is a former head of the Boston Building Trades Council, a union group.

Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce. The governor of Rhode Island, Raimondo was formerly the state's general treasurer and also has experience in the financial sector.

Biden has also named his choices for several positions that do not head traditional Cabinet-level departments but have Cabinet-rank status. They include Ron Klain, chief of staff; Jake Sullivan, national security adviser; Neera Tanden, director, Office of Management and Budget; Katherine Tai, U.S. trade representative; Cecilia Rouse, chair, Council of Economic Advisers; Susan Rice, director, Domestic Policy Council; Avril Haines, director of national intelligence; Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United Nations ambassador; John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate; Gina McCarthy, national climate adviser; and William Burns, Central Intelligence Agency director.13

— Reed Karaim

[9] Seung Min Kim and Annie Linsky, “Biden's Obama-era cabinet picks frustrate liberals, civil rights leaders,” The Washington Post, Dec. 13, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2y9nxhg.

[10] David Leonardt, “A Conversation With Joe Biden,” The New York Times, Dec. 24, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ybteaqvv.

[11] Steven T. Dennis, Daniel Flatley and Jennifer Epstein, “Senate Republicans Start Vetting Biden's Cabinet Picks,” Bloomberg, Dec. 17, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4g428t5.

[12] Alan Rappeport and Michael Corkery, “Biden's Choice of Vilsack for U.S.D.A. Raises Fears for Small Farmers,” The New York Times, Dec. 21, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ybmfragj; Leo Shane III and Joe Gould, “Biden's defense secretary pick raises concerns over recent military service,” Military Times, Dec. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y37bkgdu.

[13] Elena Moore and Audrey Carlsen, “Biden Administration: Here's Who Has Been Named So Far,” NPR, accessed Jan. 13, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y3ol3p75; Kate Sullivan, Janie Boschma and Heather Fulbright, “Here's who Joe Biden has selected for his Cabinet,” CNN, Dec. 10, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y6nltng2.

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Bibliography

Books

Dagnes, Alison , Super Mad at Everything All the Time: Political Media and Our National Anger , Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. A Shippensburg University political science professor examines the rise of partisan news outlets and social media and how they have created separate spheres of information for conservatives and liberals, spurring angry partisanship.

Osnos, Evan , Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now , Scribner, 2020. Drawing on interviews with Joe Biden and others, a New Yorker staff writer profiles the incoming president and the likely shape of his administration.

Putnam, Robert, and Shaylyn Romney Garrett , The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again , Simon & Schuster, 2020. A Harvard University public policy professor (Putnam) and an award-winning author (Romney Garrett) draw on historic parallels to argue that despite today's polarized politics, the United States is ripe for a revival of communal action and progressive policies.

Whitcover, Jules , Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption , William Morrow, 2010. A veteran Washington journalist looked at the personal tragedies and challenges that have marked Biden's long career in public service.

Articles

Friedman, Thomas , “Biden Made Sure ‘Trump Is Not Going to Be President for Four More Years,’” The New York Times, Dec. 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3wua8cp. The president-elect outlines his domestic and foreign policy priorities, along with his hopes that he can find areas of cooperation with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Moore, Elena , “Biden's First 100 Days: Here's What To Expect,” NPR, Nov. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2dqfs4w. Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to be at the top of Biden's priorities, followed by action on a broad range of fronts, including the environment, education and immigration.

Stafford, Kat , “Black leaders greet Biden win, pledge to push for equality,” The Associated Press, Nov. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4jkyxyn. African American activists and leaders see Biden's victory as an important step in the movement against racial injustice, but say it is only the beginning of what will need to be a sustained effort to counter racism and its effects.

Sullivan, Kate , “Here's who Joe Biden has selected for his Cabinet,” CNN, Dec. 10, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y6nltng2. The incoming president has announced his choices for several key Cabinet and White House positions, including chief of staff and secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury.

Reports and Studies

Dimock, Michael, and Richard Wike , “America is exceptional in the nature of its political divide,” Pew Research Center, Nov. 13, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3ct4zqs. Biden hopes to bridge the deep partisan divisions in U.S. society, but this study argues that the depth and range of distrust and anger, particularly on the Republican side, will make that difficult.

Finch, Brian , et al., “The Election Is Over — Now What? Understanding the Biden Administration's Policy Priorities,” Pillsbury Insights, Nov. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y47re6dt. The research division of a national law firm outlines Biden's priorities in most major areas, including COVID-19 recovery, education, taxation and foreign policy.

Hess, Stephen , “First Impressions: Presidents, Appointments, and the Transition,” Brookings Institution, Sept. 18, 2000, https://tinyurl.com/y3rmceou. Examining the presidential transitions of five administrations, this study by a former White House staffer outlines eight keys to successfully announcing and installing a new Cabinet and White House staff.

Woolley, John T. , “Presidents and Contagious Disease,” The American Presidency Project, April 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y578ch4f. From the 19th century on, presidents have faced outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, yellow fever, influenza and HIV/AIDS. Over time, the presidential response has evolved from acceptance to a more activist stance, according to the co-director of the American Presidency Project, an online source for presidential documents.

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The Next Step

Cabinet

Conroy, Meredith, Anna Wiederkehr and Nathaniel Rakich , “Updated: A Record-Breaking Number Of Women Could Be In Biden's Cabinet,” FiveThirtyEight, Dec. 15, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxc3bpvz. Joe Biden's Cabinet will almost certainly include more women and people of color than any in history, particularly in high-profile positions.

Shear, Michael D., and Michael Crowley , “Biden Cabinet Leans Centrist, Leaving Some Liberals Frustrated,” The New York Times, Dec. 19, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yakesodb. Some leading liberals are disappointed in the pragmatic approach Biden appears to be taking in choosing his climate and economic teams.

Superville, Darlene, Steve Peoples and Eric Tucker , “Biden introduces Merrick Garland as attorney general pick,” The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Jan. 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4m5h5js. The nominee for attorney general will face several challenges, including restoring public trust in the Justice Department and an ongoing federal tax investigation into Biden's son, Hunter.

COVID-19

Axelrod, Tal , “Biden renews call for new COVID-19 legislation after Georgia elections,” The Hill, Jan. 6, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y2b8tqcc. Biden called for “urgent action” on another COVID-19 relief bill after it became clear Democrats would likely control the Senate.

Kurtzleben, Danielle , “Biden Again Criticizes Trump's COVID-19 Response, Vows To Speed Vaccine Production,” NPR, Dec. 29, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ycy3grn6. To increase production of vaccine-related materials, Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act, which allows a president to direct firms to prioritize government orders of goods.

Roubein, Rachel , “Biden to phase out Operation Warp Speed co-leader,” Politico, Jan. 6, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y2tg84tc. One of the leaders of the Trump administration's vaccine development and rollout program will be eased out by the Biden administration, as the program faces criticism for the slower-than-expected distribution of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Economy

Cohen, Patricia , “$900 Billion Won't Carry Biden Very Far,” The New York Times, Jan. 4, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y8smg7c7. State and municipal budgets, along with small businesses, have been among the hardest-hit entities during the COVID-19 crisis. Democrats, including Biden, have pushed for more direct aid to local governments to prevent further cuts.

Davidson, Paul , “Democratic wins in Georgia Senate races could mean more stimulus checks, small boost to Biden's economic plan,” USA Today, Jan. 7, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y6sc4s6g. A narrow Democratic majority in the Senate provides an opportunity for further economic relief, but larger spending on infrastructure or tax increases on the wealthy will likely require compromise.

Levintova, Hannah , “What Biden Can Do to Boost the Economy Without Any Help From Congress,” Mother Jones, January 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y2za8f78. The Biden administration could help promote economic growth by making it easier for the Federal Reserve to loan money to cities and counties.

Transition

Hunnicutt, Trevor , “Biden transition official honing migration policy with Mexico: aide,” Reuters, Jan. 6, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y2uzp8kt. Biden's team spoke with Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard about a new approach to migration issues that would encourage alternatives to immigrants “undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States.”

Rummler, Orion , “10 former secretaries of Defense urge Pentagon to cooperate with Biden transition,” Axios, Jan. 3, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4y8ebux. All living former Defense secretaries, including Jim Mattis, who was appointed by President Trump, encouraged the Pentagon to conduct a transparent and cooperative presidential transition and to “refrain from political actions.”

Samuels, Brett, and Jonathan Easley , “Biden frustration grows over lack of Trump cooperation in transition,” The Hill, Dec. 31, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxbexhag. Members of the Biden transition say officials at the Pentagon and the Office of Management and Budget are refusing to hold meetings and respond to information requests.

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Contacts

American Enterprise Institute
1789 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20036
202-862-7177
aei.org
A conservative-leaning public policy organization that works to advance democracy and free enterprise.

The American Presidency Project
University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
presidency.ucsb.edu
The project has a searchable online database that includes more than 139,000 presidential and other political documents.

Bipartisan Policy Center
1225 I St., N.W., Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005
202-204-2400
bipartisanpolicy.org
A think tank that promotes bipartisanship, combining ideas from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20036
202-797-6000
brookings.edu
A research organization that studies a wide range of public policy issues, including governance.

Center for Presidential Transition
1100 New York Ave., N.W., Suite 200 East, Washington, DC 20005
202-775-9111
presidentialtransition.org
A nonpartisan source of information and resources that seeks to help presidential candidates and their teams lay the groundwork for a new administration or a president's second term.

Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress
601 13th St., N.W., Suite 1050N, Washington, DC 20005
202-872-9800
thepresidency.org
Organization that promotes leadership in the presidency and Congress to generate innovative solutions to national challenges.

Progressive Democrats of America
PO Box 150064, Grand Rapids, MI 49515-0064
pdamerica.org
A political action committee and grassroots organization that works for liberal policies within and outside the Democratic Party.

Third Way
1025 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036
202-384-1700
thirdway.org
A national think tank that champions center-left ideas.

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20500
202-456-1111
www.whitehouse.gov
The website for the president's official residence includes regular updates on the chief executive's speeches, policy efforts and other activities.

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Footnotes

[1] Matt Stevens, “Read Joe Biden's President-Elect Acceptance Speech: Full Transcript,” The New York Times, Nov. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y56mwrsx.

[2] Ibid.

[3] David Wasserman et al., “2020 National Popular Vote Tracker,” Cook Political Report, Dec. 3, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2mt4rqa.

[4] Scott Neuman, “Biden Names 13 Health Experts To Covid-19 Transition Advisory Board,” NPR, Nov. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y62tysdl.

[5] “Explore all of Joe Biden's plans,” Joebiden.com, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5w9zwhj; Annie Nova, “Biden will call on Congress to forgive $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers,” CNBC, Jan. 10, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxrt52s9.

[6] William Frey, “Biden's victory came from the suburbs,” Brookings Institution, Nov. 13, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3na5sm9; William Frey, “Exit polls show familiar and new voting blocs sealed Biden's win,” Brookings Institution, Nov. 12, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5b5cwt6.

[7] “National: More Americans Happy About Trump Loss Than Biden Win,” Monmouth University Poll, Nov. 18, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yyk3aldx.

[8] Amy Gardner, “‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia's secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor,” The Washington Post, Jan. 3, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yb9mq4ws; “Live Updates: Pence and Lawmakers Evacuate as Trump Supporters Storm Capitol, Halting Count of Electoral Votes,” The New York Times, accessed Jan. 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3o8uvnd; Mike Baker, “A Capitol Police officer dies from injuries sustained during the pro-Trump rampage,” The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5cu8pe6.

[9] Sydney Ember, “Progressives' Wish List for Biden Starts with Warren and Sanders,” The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y62zv2o5.

[10] Catherine Boudreau, “Biden, Harris promise a team that ‘looks like America,’” Politico, Nov. 17, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2y3cwa8.

[11] Alexi McCammond, “Progressives shift focus from Biden's cabinet to his policy agenda,” Axios, Dec. 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2ukpaol.

[12] Wasserman et al., op. cit.; “2016 Presidential Election Results,” The New York Times, https://tinyurl.com/y56dyslf.

[13] Alex Tausanovitch and Sam Berger, “The Impact of the Filibuster on Federal Policymaking,” Center for American Progress, Dec. 5, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yy3vmhl5.

[14] Nancy Ognanovich and Dean Scott, “Biden, McConnell Relationship Faces Test in More Polarized Era,” Bloomberg, Nov. 12, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2znbsf3.

[15] Luke Broadwater and Nicholas Fandos, “Amid Tears and Anger, House Democrats Promise ‘Deep Dive’ on Election Losses,” The New York Times, Nov. 5, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4vhovol; “House Results,” CNN, https://tinyurl.com/y66ugxwa.

[16] Rachael Bade and Erica Werner, “Centrist House Democrats lash out at liberal colleagues, blame far-left views for costing the party seats,” The Washington Post, Nov. 5, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y6z7xc67.

[17] Tami Luhby, “Americans are still pretty happy with their private health insurance,” CNN, Dec. 9, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3cgaoel.

[18] Larry Buchanan, Quoctrung Bui and Jugal K. Patel, “Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History,” The New York Times, July 3, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y8qt9ftc; Lindsay Schnell, “Defund Police? Some cities have already started by investing in mental health instead,” USA Today, June 22, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4cqqqbr.

[19] Katie Glueck, “Joe Biden laces into Trump for fanning flames of hate,” The New York Times, June 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ya9oqskb.

[20] Salvador Rizzo, “The school busing debate between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” The Washington Post, July 29, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yxhrq379; Kendall Karson, “Biden's key role in 1994 crime bill attacked by both Trump and Democrats,” ABC News, May 29, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y39ewxjn.

[21] “Why Joe Biden is the pragmatic choice for Black Voters,” NPR, “Morning Edition,” March 10, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3kuo76a.

[22] “National Exit Polls: How Different Groups Voted,” The New York Times, Nov. 3, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4sqmh52; Eugene Scott, “Black voters delivered Democrats the presidency. Now they are caught in the middle of its internal battle,” The Washington Post, Nov. 14, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yyn3jqo4.; and Lili Pike, “Why so many young people showed up on election day,” Vox, Nov. 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2ksn6ds.

[23] Stevens, op. cit.

[24] “Lift Every Voice: The Biden Plan for Black America,” Joebiden.com, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5j3bv2t.

[25] Samantha Michaels, “Defund-Police Organizers to Biden: ‘We're Not Going Away,’” Mother Jones, Nov. 24, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2tobw2k.

[26] Kat Stafford, “Black leaders greet Biden win, pledge to push for equality,” The Associated Press, Nov. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4jkyxyn.

[27] Sarah Pruitt, “How John Adams Established the Peaceful Transfer of Power,” History, updated Nov. 11, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5gjn8nq; “Federalist Party,” History, Sept. 13, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y36q8qpj.

[28] “Electoral College & Indecisive Elections,” History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives, Dec. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5ht5lml; Michael S. Rosenwald, “The night the Supreme Court settled a presidential election, declaring George W. Bush the winner,” The Washington Post, Nov. 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4avku4l.

[29] Thomas B. Edsall, “What is Trump playing at?” The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2wtdg7l; Alison Durkee, “Trump and the GOP have now lost more than 50 post-election lawsuits,” Forbes, Dec. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4r9clp2.

[30] Jen Kirby, “The presidential transition begins as the GSA formally recognizes Biden's victory,” Vox, Nov. 23, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4ymwgl4.

[31] Jeff Parrott, “What Joe Biden wants to accomplish in his first 100 days as president,” Deseret News, Dec. 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y254p35o; Julia Azari, “A President's First Hundred Days Really Do Matter,” FiveThirtyEight, Jan. 17, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/m3l3cq8.

[32] Azari, ibid.

[33] Michael Kruse, “How Grief Became Joe Biden's ‘Superpower,’” Politico Magazine, Jan. 25, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y9f5pvyb; Julie Bosman, “‘Amtrak Joe’ No More,” The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2008, https://tinyurl.com/y4ybd7dj.

[34] Meredith Newman, “What Joe Biden learned from his life-threatening brain aneurysms,” delaware online, Aug. 14, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y662k6sd; “Joe Biden,” Biography, Nov. 20, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5opgf2d; and Paul Kane, “Beau Biden, vice president's son, dies at 46 of brain cancer,” The Washington Post, May 31, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/y3x62ypv.

[35] Matt Flegenheimer, “Biden's First Run for President Was a Calamity. Some Missteps Still Resonate,” The New York Times, June 3, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yxqqwyqq.

[36] Mark Pulliam, “Robert Bork's Proud Legacy and the Senate's Shameful One,” The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 31, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yaa8b4u2.

[37] Chris Mills Rodrigo, “Timeline: A history of the Joe Biden-Anita Hill controversy,” The Hill, May 4, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3ewd2f2.

[38] Jake Tapper, “A Biden Problem: Foot in Mouth,” ABC News, Feb. 27, 2007, https://tinyurl.com/y3q6phh6.

[39] “Joe Biden,” Biography, op. cit.; Salvador Rizzo, “Joe Biden's claim that he got ‘150,000 combat troops out of Iraq,’” The Washington Post, July 22, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6ooq4lg; and Aamer Madhani, “Gay marriage in spotlight as Duncan, Biden say they favor it,” ABC News, May 7, 2012, https://tinyurl.com/yxebx89q.

[40] Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States (2018), p. 545.

[41] Alison Dagnes, Super Mad at Everything All the Time (2019), Kindle edition, p. 75.

[42] Kevin M. Kruse and Julian Zelizer, “How policy decisions spawned today's hyper-polarized media,” The Washington Post, Jan. 17, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yyahasoa.

[43] “Partisan Antipathy: More Intense, More Personal,” Pew Research Center, Oct. 10, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y37fuwpo.

[44] Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Sharon LaFraniere, “Biden Promises 100 Million Vaccine Shots in 100 Days, but Shortage Worries Rise,” The New York Times, Dec. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2xpxdmq; Peter Loftus, Rebecca Ballhaus and Matt Grossman, “Pfizer, U.S. Reach Deal to Boost Covid-19 Vaccine Supply,” The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 23, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y54ctwhy; and Rebecca Robbins, Frances Robles and Tim Arango, “Here's Why Distribution of the Vaccine Is Taking Longer Than Expected,” The New York Times, Dec. 31, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yctcqyso.

[45] “Covid-19 Live Updates: Biden Plans to Release Nearly All Vaccine Doses to States,” The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y636svdd; “FDA Statement on Following the Authorized Dosing Schedules for COCID-19 Vaccines,” press release, FDA, Jan. 4, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/yyga8yn9.

[46] Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Michael D. Sheer, “Covid-19: Biden Sets Ambitious Goals for First 100 Days,” The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2lal7w7; David Lim, “How Biden plans to fix the coronavirus testing problem,” Politico, Nov. 20, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxaro4s7.

[47] Jeff Stein, “Amid economic downturn, Biden sticks by proposed tax hikes on businesses and wealthy Americans,” The Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3d94q3e.

[48] Gordon B. Mermin et al., “An Updated Analysis of Former Vice President Biden's Tax Proposals,” Tax Policy Center, Nov. 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y42brh9u.

[49] Philip Ewing, “Biden Urges Action on Covid-19 Relief Now With Hopes For More in New Year,” NPR, Dec. 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3jfgskv; Jeff Stein and Erica Werner, “$2,000 stimulus checks could become a reality with Democratic control of the Senate,” The Washington Post, Jan. 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxokppkz.

[50] “The Biden Plan to Ensure the Future Is ‘Made in All of America’ by All of America's Workers,” Joebiden.com, https://tinyurl.com/yy6xxde2.

[51] “The Biden Plan to a Modern, Sustainable Infrastructure and an Equitable Clean Energy Future,” Joebiden.com, https://tinyurl.com/y2rr75cw.

[52] “The Joe Biden Plan to Build Back Better by Advancing Racial Equity Across the American Economy,” Joebiden.com, https://tinyurl.com/y3lyf2qw; “The Biden-Harris Plan to Build Back Better in Rural America,” Joebiden.com, https://tinyurl.com/y542h4me.

[53] “Health care,” Joebiden.com, https://tinyurl.com/yxskr7lu.

[54] Matt Stieb, “What is Biden Planning for Day One of his Administration?” New York Intelligencer, Nov. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3r7zmj4.

[55] Ibid.; Camila Domonoske and Colin Dwyer, “Trump Announces U.S. Withdrawal From Paris Climate Accord,” NPR, June 1, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y6qlkn5v; and Matt McGrath, “Climate change: US formally withdraws from Paris agreement,” BBC News, Nov. 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3ucquro.

[56] Juliet Eilperin and Dino Grandoni, “Biden vowed to ban new drilling on public lands. It won't be easy,” The Washington Post, Nov. 19, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y35bkn9t; Matthew Brown and Ellen Knickmeyer, “Trump pushes new environmental rollbacks on way out the door,” The Associated Press, Nov. 18, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yy8vbofa.

[57] Stieb, op. cit.; Katie Rogers and Apoorva Mandavilli, “Trump Administration Signals Formal Withdrawal from W.H.O.,” The New York Times, July 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yb2oa7dt.

[58] “The Power of America's Example: The Biden Plan for Leading the Democratic World to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century,” Joebiden.com, https://tinyurl.com/y47usdvv.

[59] Trevor Hunnicutt, “Factbox: Biden could change these key policies on ‘Day One’ in the White House,” Reuters, Nov. 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3slafrs; Michael D. Shear and Emily Cochrane, “Trump Says Administration Will Try Again to End ‘Dreamers’ Program,” The New York Times, June 19, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ydeo5c8k.

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New President Defines Foreign Policy Goals at State Department

President Biden signaled a break with his predecessor’s foreign policy, ordering an end to arms sales to Saudi Arabia for its war in Yemen and vowing to resist what he called Russia’s aggressive actions.

https://tinyurl.com/8pp8hc4u

Biden Wins Approval for $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Package

The president signed into law a wide-ranging spending measure to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic after Congress gave final approval to the bill.

https://tinyurl.com/nscke67h

President Unveils Plan for Infrastructure, Tax Increases

President Biden offered an ambitious $2 trillion proposal to attack the nation’s infrastructure problems on a broad front, saying it would be a “once-in-a-generation investment in America.”

https://tinyurl.com/f7e2jumc

Biden Backtracks on Refugee Levels After Criticism

Just hours after signing an order to maintain President Donald Trump’s historically low level of refugee admissions, President Biden reversed course in the face of heavy criticism and said he would raise the cap.

https://tinyurl.com/ch58jazz

President Calls for Activist Government in Speech to Congress

In a speech to a joint session of Congress, President Biden laid out an activist view of government that harkened back to the administrations of fellow Democrats Lyndon B. Johnson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

https://tinyurl.com/bk7x6h4w

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About the Author

Reed Karaim, a freelance writer in Tucson, Ariz., has written for The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Smithsonian, American Scholar and other publications. He is the winner of the Robin Goldstein Award for Outstanding Regional Reporting and other journalism honors. He is also the author of two novels, the most recent of which, The Winter in Anna, published by W. W. Norton & Co., is set at a small-town weekly newspaper. He is a graduate of North Dakota State University in Fargo.

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