Biden ‘AWOL’ amid shutdown fight: ‘He’s completely disappeared’

President Biden and his administration were largely absent from the onerous negotiations on government funding that gripped Capitol Hill this week.

Instead, President-elect Trump and his allies were the ones wrestling with lawmakers over a continuing resolution as a government shutdown appeared increasingly inevitable.

The White House on Friday blew off a host of questioning over Biden’s absence from the talks, insisting they were staying out of it in part because it was Republicans who had to clean up a “mess” they created. But, Biden’s silence, with no indication that administration officials were heading to Capitol Hill as the funding deadline approached, could prove damaging to the president’s final days in office.

“We're just not seeing them. And he's completely disappeared,” GOP strategist Doug Heye said of the president. “Biden is AWOL and it’s reasonable to question whether some of that is because he's just not up to the task.”

When peppered with questions about why Biden has made no public statements or appearances regarding the funding fight, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was part of a “strategy” to make it clear that “this is for Republicans in the House to fix.”

That did little to deter more questions in similar veins about what Biden’s plans were if the government shutdown over the holidays, why Biden himself wasn’t speaking to reporters, with some reporters asking if Americans deserve to hear from the president hours before a shutdown. 

Others also asked about Biden’s leadership position at the moment and why Biden doesn’t want to counter Trump and Elon Musk’s messaging on government funding. 

Some Democrats took note that, on the flip side, lawmakers aren’t pleading with the president to jump in and help reach a funding agreement, pointing to a larger issue that his party is ready for the Biden years to end.

“The bigger story is that no one is asking him to be involved. Democrats in Washington just want the Bidens and their people to get the hell out of town so we can move on from them,” a Democratic strategist told The Hill. 

If Biden had been more involved with continuing resolution negotiations, former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) questioned if he would even be listened to considering how absent he has been. 

“President Biden has been in lame duck status for most of this year. Even if he had something to say, it doesn’t seem there would be anyone listening,” Curbelo said. “His only strategy is to let President Trump, Elon Musk, and the Speaker own the chaos, since it was their decision to torpedo that bipartisan agreement [Speaker Mike] Johnson had built.” 

The White House did release two written statements on the matter during the week. On Thursday, the administration bashed the Republicans’ plan B as a “billionaire giveaway” before it failed on the House floor. It has yet to weigh in onHouse Republicans proposals since, other than insisting that the only way to fund the government is for lawmakers to pass the first spending agreement that was negotiated by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and that Democrats were on board for.

The White House approach is in stark contrast to that of Trump, who injecting himself fully in the fight, at one point even torpedoing the initial agreement and asking for the debt ceiling to be negotiated before he takes office.

Trump then warned Republicans who voted for that measure that they would be primaried if they support legislation that doesn’t tackle the debt limit.

When questioned about tackling the debt limit as part of the CR, Jean-Pierre said Biden’s “focus right now is keeping the government open” without addressing that subject matter. Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) negotiated a debt ceiling hike during Biden’s term after weeks of back-and-forth negotiations that the White House was much more involved in.

Former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), a former House Democratic caucus chair, argued there was no need for Biden to get involved in inter-party chaos among Republicans.

“I really don't see how this is the president's issue,” said Crowley. “Clearly Johnson, he can’t govern with the majority he has. How’s he going to do this when he has less of a majority?”

Other Democrats agreed, saying that the struggle to fund the government is the Republicans’ problem.

“This seems like an inter-party squabble, and I’m not sure that Biden or any Democrat has a role in solving it,” said Ivan Zapien, a former Democratic National Committee official.

Meanwhile, a former Democratic leadership staffer said that the negotiations are the problems of Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.), not Biden’s, considering he is on his way out.

“These negotiations will shape next year’s legislative and political dynamic on multiple levels, so by definition, the center of gravity for Democrats is with Jeffries and Schumer,” the former staffer said. “Unified Republican control next year will inherently be constrained by narrow margins, so Jeffries and Schumer will continue to ensure that Democratic votes are not taken for granted.”

Still, Biden risks being blamed for a shutdown under his watch, some Trump is trying to take advantage of

Trump on Friday morning called for there to be a shutdown while Biden is president and not after he is sworn in in a month. Trump had also insisted that a debt ceiling hike also happen during Biden’s administration to avoid any blame that came with that.

When questioned about Trump’s comments, Jean-Pierre again blamed Republicans for sinking the initial measure.

Trump was president during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which occurred just before Christmas in 2019 over funding for his border wall. The second longest was under former President Clinton in 1995 over spending cuts, and the third longest was under former President Obama in 2013 over the Affordable Care Act.

At the time, those shutdowns had mixed public opinions over who was to blame.

After the 2013 Obama-era shutdown, Republicans expanded their majority in the House and won the Senate in the 2014 midterms. After the Clinton-era shutdown that lasted through December 1996, the president was reelected. Trump was reelected in November, despite the lengthy shutdown in 2019 and the House and Senate are both going to be controlled by the GOP in January.

Biden’s strategy to not give public remarks and not sending his staff up to Capitol Hill is one way the White House thinks he can stay above the fray, Crowley said.

“Is this all about like blemishing Democrats to some degree? It makes absolutely no sense,” Crowley said. “They had the agreement. They went back on their word. It wasn't Democrats, and so certainly wasn't the president.”

He added, “I don't really see how they can blame a lame duck Democratic president when a new president is coming in in just a matter of a few weeks.”

Taylor Giorno contributed to this report.