When President Biden pounded his hand on a podium this week and declared “I’m tired of being quiet!” when he talked about changing Senate rules to pass voters rights legislation, Democrats immediately noticed a shift.
In five words, Biden — known for working across the aisle and his relationships with Republicans —was telegraphing that the new year was ushering in a more forceful and liberated version of himself.
“It’s about damn time,” said one top Democratic strategist. “It’s like they kept him on a leash for far too long. No one elected restrained Joe Biden. We elected real Joe Biden.”
For a year, some Democrats have complained that Biden was too constrained and kept on too tight a leash for fear of making gaffes and going off script.
But in recent days, Democrats have compared the looser-lipped Biden to his one-time partner, former President Obama, who also experienced his own moment of liberation during his presidency. At the time, Democrats half joked that “the bear is loose,” referring to Obama’s newfound freedom.
“In a similar vein to what Obama went through Joe Biden has tried —way more than people in the party wanted him to — to give Republicans every opportunity to work together but they keep just giving him the middle finger so now we have the bear is loose 2.0,” said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale.
“Biden has spent his entire career willing to work together with Republicans,” Vale added. “But now even on things like the Voting Rights Act, that Republicans have literally worked with Biden on before, and voted for unanimously, they’re refusing to do because they now only serve Trump.”
To be sure, the seemingly bolder Biden has had a rough start to the year, where the shift in strategy doesn’t appear to be helping him.
COVID is still rampant around the nation, with cases and hospitalization rising. Inflation is soaring, at a near-40-year high. And even members of his own party — Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) are thumbing their noses at his policy proposals around the filibuster and other issues.
This week, when Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams cited scheduling problems as the reason she couldn’t attend his speech, a reporter asked him if he was insulted.
“I’m insulted you asked the question,” a chuckling Biden replied, as he headed to Atlanta for the voting rights address.
In that speech, the president got rousing cheers and applause when he said he was tired of being quiet. And in the same speech, the crowd laughed when he in classic Biden form said before catching himself, “What in the hell — heck are we talking about?”
There’s good reason for the White House to mix it up: Biden’s poll numbers have lingered in the low 40’s for the past few months. FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker showed that roughly 42 percent of Americans approve of his job performance while 51 percent disapprove.
And political observers say part of the reason Biden is less constrained could stem from a frustration about the scenarios he faces on the job along with the political climate.
“Sometimes, when circumstances seem extremely difficult, which they are for Biden, it can be liberating,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “If the status quo strategy isn’t working, sometimes presidents can become more forceful on the issues, swinging for the fences with the hope of shaking things up.”
“It also comes from the sheer frustration many presidents face when the realities of Capitol Hill clash with the ambitions of the campaign and victory,” he continued.
Sources close to the White House say there’s no coincidence that Biden has sharpened his rhetoric as midterms elections draw closer and with so much at stake.
They expect Biden to stick to the heightened and unshackled tone as he frames the elections around an us-or-them choice.
One source who has spoken to White House officials added that “one of the things voting rights advocates have expressed to the White House is the need to see President Biden speaking out more publicly.”
During a briefing on Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also alluded to Biden’s amplified tenor.
“Right now, we are dealing with the realities of the fact that we have a very slim majority in the Senate and in the House that makes things more challenging than they have been in the past,” Psaki told reporters, adding that the president is “continuing to fight” the get voting rights and other pieces of his agenda passed.
“He’s going to stay at it,” she said.
Morgan Chalfant contributed to this story.