For well over a year now, President Biden’s vaunted negotiating style largely boiled down to this: I’m with you.
After he vanquished Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic primary, he brought the liberal icon’s ardent supporters into the fold by embracing much of the senator’s platform even as he ran on unifying the country. When moderate Democrats came to call, he used the tones of centrism to assure them of his conciliatory bona fides.
But when Mr. Biden ventured to the Capitol on Friday to help House Democrats out of their thicket, he had to choose sides. He effectively chose the left. …
Given the range of the party’s suburbanites-to-socialists coalition, it may have been inevitable that Mr. Biden would eventually anger one wing of his party. What was striking, and perhaps equally surprising to both blocs, was that he alienated the moderates who had propelled him to the nomination while delighting the progressives who vociferously opposed him in the primary. CONTINUED
Jonathan Martin & Jonathan Weisman, New York Times
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