MSNBC is overflowing with empathy for how President Biden is struggling in the polls. During Andrea Mitchell Reports on Tuesday morning, Mitchell outlined the challenges that President Joe Biden is facing with the midterm elections coming up quickly in November.
Mitchell sadly recounted that “the President’s low approval ratings have really frightened him and Democrats around the country, especially on Capitol Hill. Mitchell stated Biden is now feeling “adrift” but “looking to sharpen his message ahead of midterms.” A big story by four reporters at NBCNews.com relays that Biden is now wanting to reclaim the confidence of voters and show that he can “provide the sure-handed leadership he promised during the campaign.” The Democratic leaders are unsure how he will regain his voters by November, claiming that the midterm elections may also cost his party majority rule in Congress.
Mitchell when welcomed NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Kristen Welker to talk more on the “cascade of crises right now” that the President has been the leader during naming the few recent of inflation, the war in Ukraine, soaring gas prices, a rise in COVID-19 cases and the baby formula shortage that has been very evident.
Noting that the President seems to be “particularly frustrated when it comes to the issue of the economy and inflation,” Welker continues to say that the true problem is none of the above but, rather “he feels like his message has not broken through enough, Andrea. He believes there is a good story to be told. There are strong spots in the economy like the low unemployment rate. He wants to, he wants Democrats to highlight that and to do a better job, frankly, of highlighting that.”
In light of the recent series of events, it is interesting that “sharpening his message” is what the White House reporters would consider to be important, and not the notion that all these crises were caused by his policies. Nowhere in this bubble of a report was there any mention of how Republicans assert Biden caused inflation, caused a border crisis, and spurred war in Ukraine.
When reporting on the White House and what takes place, it is interesting to note that if it were the opposite party in office, the audience would see and portray a lot less emphasis on the message and more emphasis on the change that needs to take place. Words like uncaring and incompetent would circle the media heavily, as they have in the days since the Uvalde shooting.
But the Democrats are in charge, so Mitchell and Welker could only speak of Biden pushing his narrative more courageously.
This segment is sponsored by Chase and Chewy.The transcript is below: Click "expand" to read more.
The transcript is below, click “expand” to read;
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
05/31/2022
11:36:54AMANDREA MITCHELL: This comes at a critical time, the midterms approaching and according to exclusive reporting from NBC news, with more than two dozen sources, including many allies of the White House, inflation is at record highs. You see he's meeting later today with Jay Powell, the Fed chair. Gas prices up to $6.00 in some states and the President's low approval ratings have really, really frightened him and Democrats around the country especially on Capitol Hill, rattling the president to, as his own poll numbers fall to near Donald Trump low levels.
All that leaving the President feeling adrift, according to our reporting, looking to sharpen his message ahead of the midterms, according to that reporting from NBC news and interviews with those sources to the White House. Joining us now is one of the contributors, one of the authors, I should say, of that piece, NBC News chief White House correspondent Kristen Welker. So, Kristen, talk to me about all, sort of all that that is spooking the White House right now and it's getting closer and closer to the midterms and there's less and less time to turn this around?
KRISTEN WELKER: You're absolutely right, Andrea. The White House, this President, really dealing with a cascade of crises right now, inflation as you mentioned, the war in Ukraine, of course that baby formula shortage. One White House official framed it this way saying, “I've heard him say recently that he used to say about president Obama's tenure that everything landed on his desk but the locusts, and now he understands how that feels.”
So, I think that really captures the sentiment here that he is dealing with an extraordinary number of crises at the same time. He's particularly frustrated when it comes to the issue of the economy and inflation. He feels like his message has not broken through enough, Andrea. And He believes there is a good story to be told. There are strong spots in the economy like the low unemployment rate. He wants to, he wants Democrats to highlight that and to do a better job, frankly, of highlighting that. At the same time he's trying to increasingly show Americans that he feels their pain. He's out with that op-ed today in the Wall Street Journal saying inflation is going to be his top priority. He's meeting with the fed chair today and he's going to, I am told, stress the Independence of the fed, but also stress that he has a plan to try to lower inflation as well. Now, Administration officials have said they hope that inflation starts to come down by the fall. Of course, Andrea, there are just no guarantees when it comes to inflation. So Democrats, this administration, this president, increasingly worried about all of this and the impact it could have on the midterm elections.
