President Biden was willing to wheel and deal with some of America’s intractable adversaries, including nuclear talks with the mullahs in Iran, an immigration agreement with the Maduro government in Venezuela and prisoner swaps with Venezuela and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
So it came as a bit of a head-scratcher to Republicans on Capitol Hill that he’s been reluctant to negotiate with them.
It took the brink of a U.S. default to bring him to the table on debt negotiations earlier this year, and he refused to deal with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who was delaying military promotions to try to force the administration to negotiate over the Pentagon’s policy facilitating abortions.
More recently, Mr. Biden sat out negotiations on border security, ultimately sinking chances this year for his signature $106 billion spending bill to prop up Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“It’s unseemly that Joe Biden can negotiate with every foreign dictator from Xi Jinping to Vladimir Putin, but cannot be bothered to pick up the phone and speak to Senate Republicans about the urgent need to secure our border,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, told The Washington Times.
The White House finally engaged and began making concessions as the clock ran out for Congress’ year-end legislating, but a deal wouldn’t materialize before lawmakers headed home for the holidays.
Key Republicans said Mr. Biden himself needed to get invested.
“I don’t believe he’s directly involved,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told radio host Hugh Hewitt during the last-minute negotiations for a border policy deal. “This is his lieutenants and staff level that are handling this. But we certainly demand that the president does get involved. It’s ultimately, the buck stops at his desk and this is far, far overdue.”
From the start, the president has been reluctant to deal with conservative Republicans who control the House. He pumps out veto threats on nearly every major bill that originates in the lower chamber.
His reticence about dealing with Senate Republicans, though, is tougher to fathom, particularly given his pitch to voters in 2020 that he was a crafty dealmaker who would rely on his 36 years in the upper chamber to cut through partisan gridlock.
Once in office, however, he pursued a massive stimulus bill that cleared Congress without a single GOP vote, then backed a failed attempt to weaken the filibuster and finally, last year, powered through a budget-climate bill without any Republican backing.
For former deal-making partners like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, it’s come as a surprise.
“Joe Biden and I did do some pretty big deals,” the Kentucky Republican recently told reporters. “What I have said to him is, ‘The only way we’ll get an agreement, is for you to be involved.’”
But the president signaled that he doesn’t want to be the congressional deal-maker, saying last year that it wasn’t producing the results he wanted.
“One of the things that I do think that has been made clear to me … is the public doesn’t want me to be the ‘President Senator,’” Mr. Biden said in January 2022.
On the border negotiations, the White House has declined to say what role Mr. Biden played.
Before the talks in the Senate were put on ice this week, White House national security spokesman John Kirby described the negotiations this way: “Our team is staying very, very closely engaged with members of Congress, both sides of the aisle.”
Presidential spokesperson Andrew Bates also said there’s some politics involved in the reluctance to deal, pointing to Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel’s statement that the Hamas attack on Israel allowed the GOP to draw contrasts with Mr. Biden.
“Unless Ronna McDaniel is finally apologizing for calling the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks a ‘great opportunity,’ I don’t have time for them,” Mr. Bates told The Times.
Some wonder if Mr. Biden’s reputation as a dealmaker is overblown.
As vice president, Mr. Biden intervened in Senate negotiations about the debt ceiling, reaching a deal with Mr. McConnell.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, told the Obama White House never to send him to Capitol Hill again. Mr. Reid griped that after Mr. Biden was done, he had a worse deal than the one he already agreed to with Mr. McConnell, according to a book by Intercept reporter Ryan Grim.
Mr. Biden has a lot riding on the fate of his national security spending package, which includes roughly $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel and $14 billion for faster processing of illegal immigrants arriving at the border.
The president said that without that money this year, Ukraine will cede ground to Russia and Mr. Putin will be emboldened.
“Republicans in Congress are willing to give Putin the greatest gift he could hope for, and abandon our global leadership, not just Ukraine, but beyond that,” Mr. Biden said.
Republicans say they would like to support Ukraine but they can’t explain to constituents spending $60 billion to defend another country’s borders while America’s own boundary is in shambles.
Homeland Security has shattered records for the catch and release of illegal immigrants and detected record amounts of fentanyl and terrorism suspects coming across the southern border.
“Republicans have been more than ready to come to the table to enforce our immigration laws, end the incentives that are feeding the crisis, reinstate the Remain in Mexico program, finish building the wall, and end catch-and-release,” Ms. Blackburn said.
Republicans said Mr. Biden could only benefit from striking a border deal that reduces those numbers.
But the White House may be facing a lose-lose situation.
If he reaches a deal that stiffens enforcement his base will accuse him of adopting Trump-style solutions that Mr. Biden disavowed as a candidate and spent the last three years erasing as president.
Immigrant rights groups warn that the president will lose the support of Hispanic voters, and Mr. Biden cannot afford any more hemorrhaging after his handling of the Israel-Hamas war angered many progressives.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.