Joe Biden's midterm pitch is all the more striking and worrying as he grapples for momentum in an election that appears to be moving away from Democrats that could land him a Congressional run that inflicted two years of woes in his White House.
The president is on the road Thursday - not in one of the Senate's most important states - but in New York to tout semiconductor manufacturing. The fact that he emerged in a state he won by more than 20 points two years ago shows how his low approval rating limits his capacity to help his party get out of the hole.
Biden simultaneously argues that the economy is in much better shape than most Americans expect and that if they win power next month, Republicans will destroy what he frames as recovery and put Medicare and Social Security in the cutting block.
His approach reflects the unusually testing electoral environment facing Democrats, who are in danger of losing control of the House of Representatives as their hopes of clinging to the Senate appear to be receding.
Eleven days ahead of the election, Republicans are targeting dark blue territory that will allow them to build a wave that could translate into a significant House majority. Republicans need only a net gain of five seats to turn things around, and they could win enough seats in the Empire State alone to do that, CNN's Harry Enten wrote Thursday.
And the race that will decide the fate of the Senate also appears to be narrowing, as in Arizona, for example, where Democratic Senator Mark Kelly once had a clear lead. Democrats were also shaken this week by a shaky debate performance by Pennsylvania Senate nominee John Fetterman, who is still facing hearing and processing problems after a stroke. The Commonwealth represents the party's best chance of securing a seat and could be crucial to their hopes of holding the Senate 50-50, where Vice President Kamala Harris cast the decisive vote. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in overheard conversations with Biden and New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday, said he thought the Pennsylvania debate "didn't hurt us too much," but expressed concern about the upper class race in Georgia, saying it was the state of affairs "in the United States." where are we going down."
The loss of one of the chambers could be disastrous for the President, who is bracing for a barrage of Republican investigations targeting his government, his handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the business affairs of his son, Hunter Biden, which the Court is investigating.
There has been enough uncertainty in voting after the recent election that it is too early to judge precisely the state of race. But Biden's speech on Thursday reflected the burden on Democrats in this election and suggested that the historical pattern of first-term presidents getting midterm elections could reassert itself, after his party nurtured hopes of bucking the trend this summer following the Supreme Court ruling. The court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Biden was essentially forced to make a case to Americans, who polled badly on the economy, that things weren't as bad as they seemed.
His speech demonstrated the political impossibility of highlighting the undeniably positive aspects of the economy - including the expected GDP growth figures released Thursday and the historically low unemployment rate - as inflation rages near a 40-year high.
Biden's warnings of a bitter political battle with Republicans over rights and government spending in a possible row over raising the debt ceiling, meanwhile, serve as a preview for years to come that may be fierce in Washington if political control is split between the parties.
The president warned that the GOP's control of Congress would set off a "ticking time bomb" under the economy.
“They came after Social Security,” Biden said at his Syracuse show.
"They're going to shut down the government, refusing to pay America's bills for the first time in American history to make America default ... unless we give in to their demands to cut Social Security and Medicare."
“Nothing is going to create more chaos or damage the American economy more,” said the President, acknowledging that Democrats have always accused Social Security of risking an election, but also arguing that the proposals by Republican Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin were correct this time around. -really threatens the pension plan.