White House chief of staff tries to pump up worried Senate Democrats

White House chief of staff Ron Klain promised Senate Democrats that President Biden will deliver an uplifting and inspiring State of the Union address that will highlight his efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and respond to rising costs.

Klain’s goal in addressing the Senate Democratic Caucus in person on Capitol Hill appeared to be to give lawmakers something positive to focus on instead of the president’s sagging poll numbers.  

In fact, senators said there was no discussion of Biden’s weak public approval rating in battleground states that will decide in this year’s midterm elections which party will control the Senate in 2023.  

Klain told senators that Biden’s speech to a joint session of Congress next month will tout the president’s accomplishments from last year, which many Democrats believe are being undersold, and set a clear agenda for the rest of the year.  

But the conversation, while very positive, was also very general and seemed designed not to make any big news before Biden’s moment in the national spotlight on March 1.   

Some concerned centrists wanted Klain to talk about Biden’s weak poll numbers in key states, such as Pennsylvania, where an October Franklin & Marshall poll found that only 32 percent of registered voters their rated his performance as “excellent” or “good.”   

A national Gallup tracking poll conducted last month found that Biden’s job approval rating had sunk to 40 percent, the lowest of his presidency and only 2 percentage points higher than where former President Trump stood at the same point in his presidency. 

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said before the meeting that he hoped Klain would touch on the worrisome poll numbers, which could signal trouble for Democrats in the midterm elections.  

Tester said before the meeting “he should bring it up.” 

Yet Klain didn’t touch on Biden’s poll numbers and instead tried to pump up Democrats about what he predicted would be a glowing and powerful report on the State of the Union in 12 days, according to several senators who attended the meeting.  

“I think the president is going to have some clear initiatives, especially in the State of the Union, on COVID, cost of living, crime, the essential challenges looking forward, and they’re going to be positive initiatives that really tackle these problems. He’s well aware of what’s going on and what’s on people’s minds,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) after the meeting.  

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said there was “some discussion” of the midterm elections and a general recognition in the room that the State of the Union presents a good opportunity for Biden to communicate with voters and regain some political momentum.  

“We recognized State of the Union is one of the main opportunities of the year to get the attention of the American people, to set out the record, to look forward. That gives you a chance to get a greater audience and a greater support among the American people,” he said.  

Senate Republicans are growing increasingly optimistic about their chances of winning back control of the Senate and House in November. A GOP net pickup of one seat would be enough to flip the 50-50 Senate. 

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said Democrats at the meeting discussed the need to focus on the positive and their accomplishments during Biden’s first 13 months in office.  

“It’s all about where we’ve come from in the last year in terms of successes, the economy, all of the things that are causing a strong economy and also all of the challenges related to COVID and successes,” she said. “As bad as it is on COVID for everyone, and we’re all sick of what’s been happening and so on, it’s getting safer. Ninety-nine percent of our children are back to school. 

“It’s just very important to look as a baseline where we were a year ago. A year ago when they came into office there were zero home tests,” she added.  

Klain told reporters after meeting with Senate Democrats in the historic Mansfield Room just off the Senate floor that there was “a lot of enthusiasm” at the meeting and that “people are looking forward to the State of the Union.”

Senators told Klain they appreciated the president’s efforts to sell his agenda by traveling around the country to places such as Pittsburg and Culpepper, Va.  

“We did talk about how we really appreciate the president being out … and how great that was and how we wanted him just to do more,” Stabenow said, adding “there was a lot of energy in the room.”  

One question heading into the meeting was whether there would be any awkwardness between Klain, who has allied himself with the party’s progressive wing, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the centrist who effectively blew up Biden’s Build Back Better package in December by saying he wouldn’t vote for it.  

Manchin lashed out at White House staff in December after it leaked that he opposed a one-year extension of the popular enhanced child tax credit. Klain helped draft a White House statement that slammed Manchin for “a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position” after he announced on “Fox News Sunday” on Dec. 19 that he couldn’t support Build Back Better.  

Klain appeared to try to appeal to Manchin at Thursday’s meeting by highlighting the need to talk about rising costs. 

“The White House has made that very clear. They made it very clear that inflation and costs is a burden on a lot of people,” Manchin told reporters afterward. 

Appearing careful not to provoke a debate with Manchin, Klain made no mention of trying to revive Build Back Better, which the West Virginia senator has little interest in discussing. 

Manchin did not speak at the meeting.   

Klain talked about the provisions of Build Back Better, such as funding for expanded child care, as general goals but did not lay out any specific timeline or plan for getting them passed into law.  

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and other Democrats told Klain the White House needs to do more to highlight its accomplishments, such as the tax break for children’s day care costs, which passed last year as part of the American Rescue Plan.  

“One of the things we talked about at our caucus was a provision of the American Rescue Plan that Bob Casey was saying, ‘Hey, by the way, we passed and it’s been signed into law a refundable, expanded day care tax credit.’ Families that have day care costs can now get thousands of dollars more as a tax credit off this year’s filing and, to be blunt, he was saying the IRS isn’t doing anything to make people aware of it,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told reporters, highlighting a key moment in the meeting.  

Jordain Carney contributed.