By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-18 23:06:55 | Updated at 2024-12-19 02:05:31
3 hours ago
Democrats are accusing 82-year-old President Joe Biden of 'quiet quitting' - a Gen-Z trend of gradually disengaging from a job as opposed to resigning.
Biden has just one month and two days left to his term and has cut down on public appearances.
He's also taken fewer questions from the press and has stopped criticizing his now-successor, President-elect Donald Trump, who he warned during the campaign cycle was a 'threat to democracy.'
'It's just odd that, you know, he talked about Donald Trump being an existential threat to democracy for so long,' said Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor, who in Tuesday's episode of the podcast made the 'quiet quitting' quip.
'Yeah, that seems like what he’s doing,' Vietor, a former Obama aide, affirmed.
Vietor and the other Pod Save America hosts were discussing a recent Politico article that explored why Biden had all-but-disappeared from public view.
'There is no leadership coming from the White House,' one Democrat close to senior lawmakers complained to the publication. 'There is a total vacuum.'
Another source added, 'In conversations that I'm having, they don't even mention the president. It feels like Trump is president already.'
President Joe Biden is being accused of 'quiet quitting,' as he's decreased the number of public appearances and barely spoken to the press. On Wednesday he attended mass in Delaware marking the anniversary of the death of his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi
While Trump has largely stayed holed away at Mar-a-Lago during the transition, he spent more than an hour taking questions from the press on Monday from the Florida property's ornate living room.
And while he hasn't made Cabinet nominees traipse through the lobby of Trump Tower or pose for photos in front of his Bedminster, New Jersey resort like he did eight years ago during this period, he's made some high profile public appearances including Saturday's Army-Navy game and a recent trip to Paris to take in the renovated Notre Dame cathedral and meet with world leaders.
Biden, on the other hand, has yet to schedule a post-election press conference - with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre not committing the president to the traditional back-and-forth.
During his two recent trips abroad - to Peru for APEC and onto Brazil for the G20 and then a separate trip to Angola - Biden said a combined seven words to the press, Politico counted.
His lack of engagement meant that the top stories out of South America included a viral video that falsely suggested that he got lost in the Amazon rainforest and reports on how he missed a G20 group picture, chattering in the palm trees with Canadian Prime Minister and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni instead.
On Wednesday, Biden was holed away at his home in Wilmington, taking a mid-week trip to Delaware to attend church services to mark the anniversary of his first wife Neilia and daughter Naomi's tragic 1972 car accident deaths.
Sources told Politico Biden's 'reticence is rooted in two factors: Biden’s own recognition that few are eager to hear from him, and his own lingering personal belief that he doesn’t owe much more to a party that unceremoniously pushed him aside.'
During two recent trips abroad, Biden only said seven words to reporters. In that vacuum one story that went viral was the false narrative that the 82-year-old got lost in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil
Despite being the country's oldest president and polls showing - for months - that Americans had major old-age concerns, Biden announced a reelection bid on April 25, 2023 after Trump announced his own bid historically early.
Trump jumped in the 2024 race on November 14, 2022 - a week after the midterms wrapped.
Biden believed that since he beat Trump once he could do so again.
Those dreams were shattered after his disastrous debate performance in June in Atlanta, with Biden bowing out on July 21 after Democratic heavyweights, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, told him it was over.
In the weeks ahead of the election, his low poll numbers made him a liability to Vice President Kamala Harris, with campaign officials she inherited from Biden keeping the president at arm's length away.
But now, with weeks left to go, Democrats are again looking to Biden to do - something.
'There's all these things you could do that really would be historic and important,' Vietor said. 'And when you're unencumbered by politics, why not run through the tape?'
