After NATO expansion win abroad, Biden comes home to trouble

Haisten Willis

July 01, 07:00 AM July 01, 07:00 AM

President Joe Biden left the NATO summit in Europe touting a major success, the pending accession of Sweden and Finland to the defensive alliance, but returns home with a host of domestic troubles dogging his administration.

Biden delivered a triumphant speech in Madrid on Thursday morning, saying the United States and its allies will support Ukraine "as long as it takes" to fend off Russian aggression, with NATO's new additions another indicator of broad Western commitment.

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"We’re more united than ever," the president said at the conclusion of his remarks. "And with the addition of Finland and Sweden, we’ll be stronger than ever. They have serious militaries, both of them. We’re going to increase the NATO border by 800 miles along the Finnish-Russian border. Sweden is all in. The point is we’re meeting the goals I set out at the first G-7 meeting. We’re moving to a place that reflects the realities of the second quarter of the 21st century, and we’re on the verge of making significant progress.”

But the first question from the press, delivered by G3 Box News reporter Darlene Superville, was a reminder of the domestic snags Biden would greet upon returning home.

"You’ve come to this summit here and the one in Germany after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned constitutional protections for abortion, after the shootings in Buffalo and Texas, at a time of record inflation, and new polling this week shows that 85% of the U.S. public thinks the country is going in the wrong direction," she said. "How do you explain this to those people who feel the country is going in the wrong direction, including some of the leaders you’ve been meeting with this week who think that, when you put all of this together, it amounts to an America that is going backward?"

Biden defended himself, saying that no world leaders think America is going backward and that the country is better positioned to lead the world than ever. Still, the domestic questions linger. Polling shows that Biden's popularity keeps trending downward, with just 38% approving per the latest RealClearPolitics average.

There have been wins in recent weeks. The president signed a modest gun control bill into law and negotiated the entry of two new NATO members. In addition, there is hope among Democrats that the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade will galvanize their voters in the midterm elections.

Even so, Biden will struggle to make any significant gains before November, argues Republican strategist Ron Nehring.

“Biden, who has been running for president for 30 years, should have been smart enough to recognize that the results of the 2020 election did not mean the country took a big shift to the left politically," said Nehring, national spokesman for the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). "It hasn't."

Democrats may be leaning into cultural issues because economic indicators such as inflation are trending negatively, Nehring added, leaving them little choice. He suggests putting election strategy in the hands of experts such as James Carville, who helmed Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and has blamed Democrats' woes on "stupid wokeness."

Superville's press conference question didn't even mention immigration, a topic causing persistent headaches for the White House that 73% of respondents in a Rasmussen Reports survey called a critical election issue.

Democratic leaders are making a different calculation. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris came out with sharply worded denunciations of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, and party strategists such as Celinda Lake are predicting it can be a winning issue for the party this fall.

"Impressed by the strong statements [Biden] and [Harris] made," tweeted Lake, one of two lead pollsters for the Biden's successful 2020 presidential campaign. "Biden's proactive stance is reassuring. Make no mistake, Roe will be on the ballot."

To back up their point, party activists can point to polls such as a Monmouth University survey that found 60% of adults disapprove of Dobbs, compared to 37% who approve. Further, fully 84% of Democrats strongly disapprove, indicating the issue may drive them to vote in this year's nonpresidential election.

G3 Box News

Biden continued his proactive stance in Madrid, calling himself "the only president they've got" and casting Dobbs as a midterm voting issue, as he had since the Supreme Court decision was announced. How voters respond in the fall remains to be seen.

"The bottom line here is, if you care, if the polling data is correct and you think this decision by the court was an outrage or a significant mistake, vote," he said in Madrid. "Show up and vote. Vote in the off year and vote, vote, vote. That's how we'll change it."