Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason joins Cheddar Politics to discuss the recent spurt of energy coming from President Biden and the White House just over two months ahead of the November midterms.

Cheddar Politics

Biden Finds New Energy Ahead of November Midterms

and gender politics back everyone at baker machado in new york. And with less than 10 weeks until the midterms president biden in the White House have seemed to find some new energy just when they needed it. A flurry of legislative accomplishments, more combative messaging dark Brandon memes and even more have all driven a big change in perception of the White House is standing ahead of a big key election ahead. So joining us now is Jeff Mason White House correspondent over Reuters, Jeff always good to see you. I mean, broadly speaking, what do you think is really sort of driving this change or messaging pivot within the White House? I mean, it seems like especially from yesterday's, you know, rally that the president had in pennsylvania. This is the new biden we're seeing now you're definitely seeing a more aggressive biden baker and I think that that is a shift and it's a shift going into the reality of a mid terms that most people are midterm election rather than most people thought was not going to go democrats way. Now you see democrats pretty hard hopeful that they're going to be able to hold on to the Senate and possibly even hold onto the House. Although I don't think the polling on that is particularly clear yet and I think that's I think this is at least a show of confidence going into that. It's also something honestly baker that some of his allies have been wanting for a long time, joe biden came into office, really wanting to kind of pull out the biden. The senator biden that that was such a big part of his law making history and such a big part of his personality. But now he's kind of focusing more on putting down the other party and and lifting up The people whose values that he that he supports and the and the values that he's trying to get through um from the White House, Jeff. What changed? I mean for this entire year the president was marred in low in high inflation. The economy was sort of in a different position. The president was marred in approval ratings in the 30s. What has changed? Yeah. Well a couple of things I think number one the Supreme Court decision on on roe V wade has has led to this this pivot inside the White House in addition to this outcry from from progressives and democrats across the country. Um Number two, you know the I think there's some there's just some more emphasis from staff within the White House. You have Anita Dunn back in the White House, she had been a longtime biden adviser who worked in the White House for a few months, pardon me at the beginning of his term and then stepped away and has now come back and I think some of the messaging strategy that we're seeing no doubt has her fingerprints on it as well. And then thirdly baker, I think it's just the reality of the situation now that to take on the Republican Party from the White House's view, they had to become more aggressive and that's what they've done. You mentioned that because we've seen the president call them Maga republicans. He's been talking about fascism a lot in his speeches as well. So you sort of think that approach of sort of going at republicans with that sort of moniker, also sort of going after, you know, the rick scott part of the Republican Party as well when it comes to the economy. And then also sort of balancing it out with some of the legislative accomplishments that they've had, the gun bill, the inflation reduction act. All these other sorts of huge legislative accomplishment that have happened. That's how the president's been able to sort of balance things out here, agreed. I mean, I think all of that said, we shouldn't deny the fact that he still has some pretty big weaknesses and some big vulnerabilities and inflation is one of them. It's also early september amazingly. Um, and the election is a couple of months away, which isn't that far, but a lot can happen in two months. So they can't be counting their chickens as it were just yet. The democrats, but it does seem to be a political shift and it is a shift that is helping him and helping democrats as those midterms get closer, the other sort of thing. That's sort of interesting and we're looking at this from the the primary calendar so far, we're seeing democrats running anywhere between six and 10 points ahead of joe biden in a lot of these districts and in these senate races as well. So how have democrats been able to still maintain popularity back home even if they've been able to sort of distance themselves from president trump from president biden? Because usually, yes, usually the president, whoever is in power, usually that's sort of a toxic mix for anybody that's up for reelection. But somehow democrats are somehow being able to out pull him at this point. Well, it just kind of depends when we saw, we saw an event earlier this week where president biden was in pennsylvania and the Senate Democratic Senate candidate, john Fetterman did not appear with him, although I understand he's going to appear with him at an upcoming event in pennsylvania. So, you know, these candidates have choices to make, they will want to embrace the parts of the, of the biden agenda that are going well and distance themselves from the parts that aren't. But you know, the opera po that some of the parts that aren't partick on inflation and costs are changing a little bit. The fact that gasoline prices have come down steadily over the last month. That is something that the White House has been trying pretty hard to take credit for. And that's something that democrats will no doubt want to embrace at this point. But that won't change between now and november. The the overall core inflation is unlikely to go down so dramatically That that it is no longer vulnerability. And that's just a political calculation that dems who are on the ballot need to make Jeff obviously less than 70 days until the midterms. The Democrats obviously hope this string of success continues. Do you see it happening or do you see this sort of getting closer Republicans basically narrowing this gap here with the last few days we have before the last few weeks before the midterms here? Well, a couple of things. Again, number one, historically, midterm elections end up going for the for the opposing party. So you've got historical headwinds at play here, even though the president has had some some big wins in the last couple of months, that doesn't change the normal dynamics that have in a midterm election, doesn't mean he can't win, doesn't mean that the dems can't get both the House and the Senate, but it's they've got that to fight against number two, there's still a lot of time, there's a lot that can happen between now and november. And and number three, you've got it, you've got some some work that republicans have already done um to to build up their platforms and you've got the trump effect, which has both a negative and some positive influences. I mean, he certainly had a big impact over which republicans ended up with a great deal of primaries and yet you've also got all the legal woes, um, and stuff that you guys were talking about earlier. So that's a long answer to was a short question, but there's just a lot of factors, it's hard to predict, but I would say that right now, um, the headwinds seem to be moving in the democrats direction. We'll see if that lasts. Yeah. And by the way, George W Bush pretty much the last president that actually increased his margin in the House in the House after the midterm election. That's pretty much the anomaly here, Jeff Mason White House correspondent over at Reuters. Always good to see you, Jeff, Thank you so much for joining us. And guys after the break, we take a closer look at how the battle for the Senate is shaping up more cheddar politics next. Don't go anywhere.