US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters in Congress on January 13, 2022 (AFP / SAUL LOEB)
Joe Biden was battling Thursday to save his vast electoral reform from parliamentary wreckage, following seeing the Supreme Court block its vaccine obligation in business, during a Black Thursday which bluntly exposes the weaknesses of the American president.
“I hope we get there but I’m not sure,” he admitted, visibly tense, of his great law to protect the access of African Americans to the polls.
He had traveled, which is extremely rare, to the Capitol for a meeting with the Democratic senators, devoted to the project.
“If we fail the first time, we can try a second time,” added the 79-year-old president, however, who continues to struggle.
In the evening, he received Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, two moderate Democrats who are blocking the project for the moment. The meeting, which lasted just over an hour, ended shortly before 7:00 p.m. (00:00 GMT), according to a White House official.
U.S. Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 13, 2022 (AFP / SAUL LOEB)
Joe Biden can not do anything, however, following the decision of the Supreme Court, which blocked its decision to impose either the anti-Covid vaccine or regular tests in companies with more than 100 employees. He said he was “disappointed”.
The measure, dear to Joe Biden, was denounced as an abuse of power by elected Republican officials. In a country where only 62% of the population is fully vaccinated, the question reveals deep political divides.
However, the high court has validated the vaccination obligation for employees of health structures that benefit from federal funds.
– Too big promises? –
This succession of bad news erodes a little more the political credit of a president who is already very unpopular and who has perhaps made too big promises, with too little room for maneuver.
Joe Biden thus promised to protect access to the ballot boxes for minorities and the transparency of voting operations in the face of a multitude of reforms undertaken by conservative states, in particular in the south of the country.
The United States Supreme Court in Washington on January 11, 2022 (AFP / Stefani Reynolds)
NGOs assure that these measures adopted by Republicans particularly discriminate once morest African Americans, who overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden in the last election.
To block, the Democratic president wants to harmonize voting practices and give the federal state a right of scrutiny over local initiatives.
To pass this great reform to the Senate, it would in theory need a majority increased by 60 votes. However, the Democratic camp has 50 votes plus that of Vice-President Kamala Harris, and the Republicans 50.
Failing to be able to convince opposition senators, fiercely opposed, the Democrats have only one solution to save their project: to break this parliamentary practice and to force a simple majority.
– “Hellish Spiral” –
But this maneuver was torpedoed first by Kyrsten Sinema. According to the senator from Arizona, this strategy would only fuel the “infernal spiral of division”.
Joe Manchin, another centrist senator who has already single-handedly blocked Joe Biden’s huge $ 1.850 billion social program, said in a statement that he would not “vote to eliminate or weaken” this rule. increased majority.
President Joe Biden in Congress on January 13, 2022 (AFP / SAUL LOEB)
The two elected officials are favorable to the reform itself, but have never made a secret of their attachment to the threshold of 60 votes – even in a political landscape polarized as never perhaps, where, following the tumultuous mandate of Donald Trump, partisan dialogue has become extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Without their voices, the reform is doomed.
This Black Thursday cruelly reminds Joe Biden that he has very little latitude.
He must deal with a Congress that he does not really control, conservative states in open rebellion on multiple subjects (abortion, voting rights, health strategy …), and a Supreme Court now very conservative, following the appointments made. by Donald Trump.
In a few months, Joe Biden also risks losing any majority in Congress in the mid-term legislative elections. He would then, in fact, be paralyzed until the next presidential election.
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