When he must decide a high-stakes issue, the president hears out his top aides — then picks up the phone and calls a politician.
That moment, as detailed by two people familiar with the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation, illustrates a crucial truth at the heart of Biden’s decision-making: There is no one he trusts like a fellow politician.
As Biden prepares to ask voters for a second term, The Washington Post is exploring three pillars of his presidential leadership.scrutinized how Biden absorbs information, and a forthcoming piece will look at how he communicates with Americans. For all the memos and briefings, presidents are profoundly alone in making these decisions, and in that moment of truth, they rely on those whom life has taught them to trust. For Biden, that means people who have braved the campaign trail.
“Well, you and I haven’t always agreed on everything,” Hagel said. Biden, in Hagel’s account, laughed and said, “Well, you’ve never been bashful about that.”The two then had a “pretty direct conversation” about the foreign policy decisions confronting Biden, Hagel said, declining to share more detail from the private talk. “I’m a Republican, he’s a Democrat,” Hagel said. “But that never made any difference.
After serving in Washington for nearly five decades, Biden has repeatedly seen presidents embrace an idea crafted meticulously by some of the smartest experts in the country, only to see it blow up when it meets political reality. Some of Biden’s critics say the president goes too far in relying on longtime politicians, especially because the ones he tends to consult are, like him, older White men who have spent years in the Senate and are likely to reinforce his worldview. Liberal activists in particular complain that Biden is so focused on what seems politically possible that he fails to take the bold steps they say are necessary to confront urgent crises such as racial inequity and climate change.
Biden does not. He ignited an uproar during the 2020 campaign by wistfully recalling how he got along with segregationist senators in the 1970s, even though they “didn’t agree on much of anything.” Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Biden still has that itch to ensure his legislation is solving problems.
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