Biden's first 50 days, by the numbers - POLITICO - Politico

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Welcome to POLITICO’s 2021 Transition Playbook, your guide to the first 100 days of the Biden administration

White House Press Secretary JEN PSAKI insisted in her briefing that today was the 49th day of Biden’s presidency. Chief of Staff RON KLAIN also declared it to be “Day 49” in a tweet. That would make Thursday, when Biden delivers his first primetime address about his signature Covid-19 relief plan, the nice and even day 50.

But like a high school student scribbling a few seconds after the teacher yells “PENCILS DOWN,” the Biden White House is giving themselves an extra day, refusing to count the day he was sworn in as a day in office. Today, dear readers, is actually Biden’s 50th day in the White House. Welcome to #DayGate.

The White House did not respond to questions about their cheating calendar math, but Biden is not the first president to play loosey-goosey with the entirely artificial 100-day timeline.

FDR’s famous “first 100 days” radio address was given on day 143 of his presidency and referred to the 100-day legislative session that began on March 9, five days after his inauguration, according to JONATHAN ALTER’s book on the period, “The Defining Moment,” which was also a popular read on the Biden transition team.

Since it’s all arbitrary anyway, we’re gonna take a look at Biden’s first 50 days and how it compares to his most recent predecessors.

The tl;dr version: a lot more executive orders, less legislation (although he’s about to sign a massive bill), about average on nominations sent to the Senate and an approval rating higher than DONALD TRUMP’s but lower than BARACK OBAMA’s.

Executive orders signed:

Biden: 34
Trump: 16
Obama: 17
W. Bush: 8

Biden has signed twice as many executive orders as any of his immediate predecessors, according to the Partnership for Public Service. They include measures canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, mandating that travelers wear masks in airports, reopening enrollment in healthcare.gov and rescinding Trump’s executive orders on immigration and transgender Americans serving in the military.

It’s not clear yet if this will be a defining trend of Biden’s presidency or if it’s just because Biden’s team was well-prepared. Or both.

MAX STIER, the Partnership’s president and chief executive, said that Biden’s executive order rapid fire was the result of a careful due diligence the transition team did before Inauguration Day. “So much of the work that they did in the transition I think is paying dividends,” he said.

Bills signed into law:

Biden: 1
Trump: 8
Obama: 7
W. Bush: 1

Biden plans to sign a $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill into law on Friday, so he will soon have two under his belt. But the first and only bill he’s signed so far was the law granting LLOYD AUSTIN a waiver allowing him to serve as Defense secretary.

Biden is behind Obama on signing his big rescue bill but he is ahead of other presidents on signing his first major piece of legislation. President GEORGE W. BUSH, for instance, didn’t sign his first tax cut bill until June 7, 2001, and Trump didn’t sign his own tax cut bill until Dec. 22, 2017, after his Obamacare repeal efforts failed.

Nominations made:

Biden: 56
Trump: 38
Obama: 56
W. Bush: 31

The Senate has been slow to confirm Biden’s nominees, owing to the fact that Democrats only gained control in early January and Trump’s February impeachment trial (remember impeachment?). But Biden has kept pace with his predecessors in terms of sending his picks to the Hill. He’s sent 56 nominations to the Senate, according to the Partnership for Public Service. That’s the same number Obama made at this point in his first term and more than either Trump or Bush.

Approval rating:

Biden: 53 percent
Trump: 45 percent
Obama: 60 percent
W. Bush: 59 percent

Fifty days into his presidency, Biden is more popular than Trump was on any day of his, according to FiveThirtyEight’s weighted polling average.

But he’s not having the honeymoons some of his recent predecessors enjoyed, with lower ratings than either Obama and W. Bush.

That’s almost certainly a product of increased polarization. And, indeed, at this point in 2009, Obama’s numbers had already started to drop, signalling a trend that would continue over his first two years in office. “We saw Barack Obama come in with extraordinary high approval ratings,” said PATRICK MURRAY, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “They went down significantly within a couple of months.”

The question facing pollsters: Will Biden’s approval rating plunge like Obama’s did? Or will its trajectory look more like Trump’s, which rose and fell only slightly over the course of a tumultuous four years?

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Where's Joe

At the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with ALEX GORSKY of Johnson & Johnson and KENNETH FRAZIER of Merck, where he previewed his primetime address set for Thursday.

Where's Kamala

At the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where she swore in Housing and Urban Development Secretary MARCIA FUDGE.

Presidential Trivia

With the Center for Presidential Transition

Who was the first first lady to appoint a chief of staff and pay them the same amount as the president’s chief of staff?

(Answer is at the bottom.)

Pro Exclusive

PANELS APPROVE SHALANDA YOUNG FOR OMB POST — The Senate Homeland Security Committee advanced the nomination of SHALANDA YOUNG to be the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, CAITLIN EMMA reports. Young’s nomination was approved by a vote of 7-6, along party lines. The Senate Budget Committee also approved Young’s nomination Wednesday.

The remaining articles and infographics in this section are exclusively available to POLITICO Pro subscribers. Pro is a smart, personalized policy intelligence platform from POLITICO. If you are interested in learning more about how POLITICO Pro can support your team through the 2020 transition and beyond, visit this webpage.

The West Wing

THE BEAR IS LOOSE — Biden is expected to give his first primetime address tomorrow and is going to Delaware County, Pennsylvania, next Tuesday. Read CHRIS CADELAGO and NATASHA KORECKI on the coming “Biden Blitz.”

ALL ABOUT JOE: Responding to a question about the passage of the American Rescue Package, Vice President Harris heaped praise on her boss. "I have to tell you, Joe Biden made this happen,” she said. "And, and I give full credit to Joe Biden, because this was his vision. And he really put a lot of work and thought into this, to do what this will do in terms of intergenerational impact, lifting half of American children out of poverty. It's a big deal.”

ART APPRECIATION: Second Gentleman DOUG EMHOFF visited the D.C. Wharf today and was spotted admiring a certain mural by artist LONDON KAYE.

THE BUREAUCRATS

PACK YOUR LONG UNDERWEAR, TONY — Secretary of State TONY BLINKEN and National Security Adviser JAKE SULLIVAN will meet with senior Chinese diplomats in Anchorage, Alaska, next week, BEN LEONARD reports. That meeting will come after Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visit Tokyo and Seoul earlier in the week.

The Biden administration is trying to signal an aggressive posture on China. "There's no intent at this point for a series of follow-on engagements,” Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday. “Those engagements, if they are to follow, really have to be based on the proposition that we're seeing tangible progress and tangible outcomes on the issues of concern to us with China."

Psaki also told reporters today that the two countries have “deep disagreements” to discuss.

Advise and Consent

ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND IT IS — Almost exactly five years after Obama announced his doomed nomination to the Supreme Court, MERRICK GARLAND was easily confirmed as BIden’s attorney general, JOSH GERSTEIN reports (another must-follow).

Despite some GOP skepticism, Garland won support from Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL and the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican, Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa). The final vote was 70-30. And thus, all is forgotten from 2016. That’s how this works, right?

Among the Republicans who voted against Garland: Sen. TODD YOUNG (R-Ind.), who’s only voted against two other Biden nominees. Young was also among the first group of Republican senators to sit down with Biden at the White House last month.

MORE CONFIRMATIONS: The Senate also confirmed MICHAEL REGAN as Environmental Protection Agency administrator and Marcia Fudge as secretary of Housing and Urban Development today. Both votes were 66-34.Fudge faces a tough situation, as KATY O’DONNELL and MAYA KING report (follow them here and here).

The agency’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity — an area Fudge is expected to focus on — has been decimated. As of July 2020, more than one in four of the positions in the office were not regularly staffed; 21 percent were vacant and another 7 percent were filled on an acting basis.

What We're Reading

Warren builds clout with Biden through pipeline of staff picks (Bloomberg News)

Klapper set to become chief of staff to the U.S. attorney general (New Jersey Globe)

Meena Harris' Phenomenal launches "pro-vaxxer" campaign with Demi Lovato (Hollywood Reporter)

Joe Biden just launched the second war on poverty (Vox)

Exclusive: 'Migrant president' Biden stirs Mexican angst over boom time for gangs (Reuters)

The Oppo Book

Marcia Fudge doesn’t mess around, as Katy and Maya wrote about today. One anecdote stuck out.

In January 2019, a woman accused Fudge of assault, claiming the Ohio congresswoman had “pimp-slapped” the phone out of her hand after she criticized Fudge's support for a judge, according to Cleveland.com.

“You slapped me with your backhand, the phone went flying. You hit me. That’s a fact, congresswoman,” the woman said at a February hearing.

“This is a total fabrication,” Fudge said in court at the time, adding: “If I had hit her, she would have been hurt.” *ohhhhhhhh*

The court didn’t just rule against the assault charge but granted Fudge a temporary restraining order against the woman.

TRIVIA ANSWER

ROSALYNN CARTER was the first first lady to appoint a chief of staff to the Office of the First Lady and pay them the same amount as the president’s chief of staff.

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