WASHINGTON (AP) – When Joe Biden takes the oath of office outside an injured Capitol on Wednesday, he will begin reshaping the office of the presidency as he seeks to lead a bitterly divided nation grappling with a devastating pandemic and an uprising meant to end his ascension to power.
Biden had campaigned as a rebuke to President Donald Trump, a special figure whose political power was fueled by disagreement and grievances. The Democrat viewed his election as one to “heal the soul of the nation” and restore the presidency, and restore the image of the White House as a symbol of stability and credibility.
In ways big and small, Biden will try to change the office he will soon be occupying. Incendiary tweets are out, clumsy policy briefings are in. Biden, as much an institutionalist as Trump has been a disruptor, will try to change the tone and priorities of the office.
“It’s really about giving the office some dignity, choosing truth over lies, unity over division,” Biden said shortly after launching his campaign. “It’s about who we are.”
The White House is about 2 miles on Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol, where broken windows, heavy fortifications, and hundreds of National Guard members are a visible reminder of the power of a president’s words. Trump supporters left a meeting of the president at the White House on Jan. 6 to perpetrate violence in his name at the Capitol, besiege the citadel of democracy, and underline the daunting task facing Biden in trying to defeat the to heal the country’s searing divisions.
Few Presidents have taken the job after thinking more about the stamp he wants to make on it than Biden. He spent more than 40 years in Washington, taking the White House after two previous failed attempts. He regularly praises his former boss, President Barack Obama, as an example of how to lead during a crisis.
Biden’s primary task will be to restore the White House’s symbol to the world as a place of integrity and good governance. Because right now everything is confused, ”said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian and professor at Rice University. “But Biden is in a unique position to do this, having spent his entire life in Washington and looking at the job for eight years.”
The changes will be dramatic, starting with the president’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic that claimed nearly 400,000 American lives. The sharp break with Trump comes not only in federal policy, but also in personal behavior.
Trump ignored the virus, his staff largely avoiding masks in the maze of cramped offices in the West Wing, while the president hosted “ superspreader ” events at the White House and along the way. Biden’s team is considering having many staff members work from home; those who enter the building wear masks. Biden has already been vaccinated, something Trump, who got the virus last fall, chose not to despite suggestions that it would set an example for the nation.
Biden’s approach to the day-to-day responsibilities of the office will also be a break from its predecessor. First, Twitter won’t be a major news source.
Trump’s trail of tweets has been stirring the capital for four years. All over Washington, telephones buzzed with warnings when the president used his most powerful political weapon to attack Democrats and keep Republicans in line.
Biden’s tweets are mostly boring press releases and policy details with the occasional “Here’s the deal, folks” thrown in for good measure. Allied lawmakers are unlikely to have to pretend they haven’t seen the latest post to avoid comment on it.
Biden has said he wants Americans to see the president as a role model again; no more crude and degrading language or racist, divisive rhetoric. His team has pledged to restore the daily newsletters, and the president-elect does not call the press “the enemy of the people.” But it remains to be seen if he will be as accessible as Trump, who answered more questions from reporters than any of his recent predecessors until his post-election hibernation.
While Trump filled much of his cabinet and White House staff with family members, political neophytes, and newcomers to administration, Biden has turned to seasoned hands by bringing in Obama veterans and career officials.
Policy documents will be back in vogue and those controlled by Kabelchyron are likely to come out.
Trump was mostly indifferent to the machinations of Congress and at times appeared to be an observer of his own administration. Biden, a longtime senator who will have democratic control of both houses, is positioned to use the weight of his office to drive an ambitious legislative agenda.
However, his team will be tested by the uproar at home: a virus that kills more than 4,000 people a day, a slow vaccination program, a deteriorating economy and disagreement over the upcoming second impeachment trial for Trump.
Biden also has as much work to do to restore the presidency’s image abroad as it does on the American coasts.
Trump repositioned the United States in the world, pulling the US out of a number of multilateral trade and climate deals in favor of a more insular foreign policy. His ever-changing beliefs and moods strained relations with some of the country’s oldest allies, including much of Western Europe.
As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, Trump fostered competition, not collaboration, in research and vaccine development. Trump also abandoned the traditional role the president plays in highlighting human rights violations around the world.
Biden, who has served for years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as vice president with an extensive foreign policy portfolio, has pledged a course correction. He has pledged to re-establish alliances, rejoin the Paris Agreement on Climate and the World Health Organization, and said he would bolster US national security by first addressing the health, economic and political crises at home.
Offering the White House as a symbol of stability to the world’s capitals will not be easy for Biden as Trump’s shadow looms.
“He has a structural problem and must make the US appear more reliable. We are smaller in size and less predictable, ”said Richard Haass, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. He noted that even after Biden’s victory, the European Union strengthened ties with China with a new investment treaty.
“Everyone around the world is hedging, they have no idea if Biden is a term president or what could come after him,” Haass said. “There is a fear around the world that Trump or Trumpism could return in four years.”
___
Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire