Since taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden has been intent on taking credit for all the successes of his administration while being quick to deny any responsibility for its failures. From claims that he deserves “no” criticism for mishandling classified documents to deflections about chaotic processes and overseas trips when White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain explains away this behavior, it is clear that President Biden only wants to be associated with success and not failure. This strategy can easily be seen in other areas as well, such as the inflation rate and COVID-19 death rates.
On the one hand, President Biden has made sure to take credit for some of the economic successes of his first four months in office. He has touted his $1.9 trillion relief package which helped millions of Americans who had been struggling financially due to the pandemic. He has also praised himself for the dropping unemployment rate along with other indicators such as consumer confidence and housing markets that have started to rebound since he took office.
However, there are many aspects of the economy that are concerning and could significantly dampen some of those positive numbers if they remain unchecked. Inflation is a key area where President Biden has been silent when it comes to taking responsibility. The Consumer Price Index rose 4.2% year over year in April 2021, its highest since 2008 – something economists had warned was likely to happen given all the spending stimulus put into place by Congress and President Biden himself in recent months. Republicans have pointed out that this was an expected result from these policies, yet no one from within the administration will accept any blame or responsibility for these outcomes – instead passing it off as a natural part of an economic recovery process or blaming other external factors like supply chain shortages or increased demand for goods and services due to more people now having money to spend again due to increased government stimulus payments.
The same lack of accountability is also seen in how President Biden has handled the COVID-19 pandemic since taking office. Although there is no doubt that he inherited a difficult situation from former president Donald Trump regarding the pandemic response, he often takes full credit for any successes such as getting more Americans vaccinated faster than most experts thought possible during his first months in office while deflecting any failures onto others like state governors or local health officials who were left with trying to implement much of his plan on their own without enough federal support early on.
It should be noted that this tendency by President Biden – wanting all credit but none of the blame – is not unique among politicians; however it does appear especially pronounced at this point just four months into his presidency which could create issues down the line if he continues at this pace throughout his term or even just through 2022 midterms if Democrats do poorly at them due to issues brought up by voters unhappy with some decisions made by President Biden’s administration along with general dissatisfaction over how much inaction there appears versus campaign promises made prior last November (2020).
At this time it should not come as a surprise that there are those still questioning what happened with those classified documents found connected with President Biden while leaving office back in January given his penchant for denying responsibility and deflecting blame onto others whenever things go wrong regardless if they actually did make mistakes or not (as seems likely happened here). It may become increasingly difficult for him politically going forward if he continues this strategy even though historically speaking most presidents tend toward wanting all credit but none of the blame when things don’t go exactly according to their plan; however, usually, once things start getting too out of hand then they start coming clean about certain aspects otherwise risk further damage being done either personally politically or both (which unfortunately seems especially true lately). Ultimately though this decision lies solely upon him alone depending on how long he wants to continue pushing forward without admitting fault anywhere else first before anything else happens behind closed doors where no one else will ever know what really occurred except probably those directly involved.
