Biden, meanwhile, had little if no involvement in the government funding fight, a move that is unusual for a sitting president, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports.
“Nobody is talking about, ‘Where’s Biden?’ in any of this. Trump is in charge,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said. “Trump is in charge now, even without the election certification.”
“The fact that the sitting president of the United States didn’t have much of an impact on it is really telling, especially since the president has one of the [chambers] of Congress under his control, or his party’s control,” Vin Weber, a Republican strategist, said.
While Biden’s allies say he didn’t need to distract from the Republican-on-Republican fighting, other Democrats thought he could have been more vocal in the process.
“I think they’re out of energy,” a Democratic senator who requested anonymity said of Biden.
Questions surrounding Biden's lack of involvement in his final weeks comes as Wall Street Journal report detailed how aides have had to adapt “around the needs of a diminished leader” while Biden has been in office.
Some Democrats have pushed back on the criticism of Biden, pointing to the Senate's confirmation of Biden's 235th judicial nominee, which beats Trump's 234 confirmed judges during his first term.
Biden has been making headlines this week. On Monday, he commuted the sentences of nearly every federal prisoner on death row in a move that sparked criticism from Republicans and at least one Democrat, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill).
The previous week, Biden made another move, pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, as well as 1,500 people — setting a new daily record for clemency — who were put on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
