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Additional high-profile staff departures and replacements in recent days within the White House are said to be raising new alarms for Joe Biden, whose presidency is besieged with a range of problems from a porous southwestern border that likely just cost Democrats a House seat to skyrocketing inflation crimping household budgets.
One of the most important changes: Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is replacing Cedric Richmond as one of Biden’s most senior aides, Axios reported last week.
The outlet notes:
As director of the White House Office of Public Engagement beginning in the coming weeks, Bottoms will immediately have access to some of the most high-level planning and strategy sessions in the West Wing — and to the president himself.
The role is integral to developing Biden’s policies and then convincing the broader Democratic coalition that the president is charting the right approach.
The stakes are high: Bottoms will be responsible for navigating divergent policy goals between progressives and centrists ahead of what’s expected to be an ugly midterm cycle for Democrats.
“Keisha is bright, honorable, tough, and has the integrity required to represent our Administration to the American public,” Biden noted in a statement. “Jill and I have known Keisha for a long time and look forward to working with her more closely.”
In an interview with Axios, Bottoms said that she plans to do “more listening than anything,” and that “it’s important that people feel their voices are reflected and their voices are heard.”
Richmond left the Biden White House last month for a position at the Democratic National Committee; Axios reported that Bottoms has committed to serving at least through the midterms.
Meanwhile, Biden named Julie Chavez Rodriguez to serve as a White House senior adviser.
Chavez, the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, a leftist known for organizing farm laborers, was serving as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and the White House. Biden has a bust of her grandfather in the Oval Office.
But the turnover is worrisome, as the Washington Times reports:
A spate of resignations by high-profile aides to President Biden has left the remaining White House staff frustrated as they toil with a crumbling domestic agenda, sky-high inflation, the war in Ukraine, and dimming prospects for Democrats in the November elections.
The high turnover at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, critics say, is a sign that those surrounding Mr. Biden are increasingly worried about a Democratic bloodbath at the polls and the prospects of Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
A GOP takeover on Capitol Hill would be the death knell for the Biden‘s already stalled agenda and guarantee an onslaught of congressional investigations of the administration.
“It’s a mass exodus before midterms,” Jimmy Keady, a Republican strategist, told the outlet.
“Someone will be to blame and it’s not going to be Joe Biden‘s terrible policies. Heads will roll after the midterms and in politics, responsibility runs downhill. No one wants to be holding the bag at the end,” he added.
Democratic operatives, of course, disagree, with some pointing out that Biden’s core advisers including White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain have remained.
“It is very normal for people to transition out of an administration and we’ve seen that historically in every administration,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democrat strategist. “People come in, get things set up, and then move on to either the private sector or another role in government.”
He also pushed back on the summer departures as being problematic for his party.
But they do come as inflation hits record highs, driving by massive spikes in gasoline and diesel fuel, food, and housing costs — which Republicans have blamed squarely on a combination of Biden’s policies and the Democrat-controlled Congress’ high levels of spending.
All said, however, the leader in staff departures within the first two years of their term in recent history is former President Donald Trump, who lost 66 percent of his staff within that period. Biden, by comparison, has lost 26 percent; former President Barack Obama lost 24 percent; former President George W. Bush lost 33 percent; former President Bill Clinton lost 38 percent.
