However the midterms unfold, the nation awaits Biden’s response

In the face of a potential loss of control of one or both houses of Congress, the Biden White House is wavering on the question of whether Joe Biden will host a post-election press conference signaling how he plans to work with the new, opposition Congress. Not doing such an event would be a mistake.  

Presidential statements after midterm election losses are now a regular part of the political landscape, and the country watches them carefully for clues regarding what lies ahead.

In 1994, former President Bill Clinton lost control of both houses of Congress in the Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.)-led Republican Revolution. Clinton’s East Room statement was not only gracious but also recognized his own role in the Democrats’ loss of both chambers for the first time in 40 years: “I think that I have some responsibility for it. I am the president.”

Clinton’s statement foreshadowed the rethinking of his approach with the new Congress in town. While he did not actively cooperate with the Republicans, he did recognize that things had changed, famously saying “the era of the government is over” in his 1996 State of the Union address. He also made internal changes, bringing in the more conservative political advisor Dick Morris, who helped Clinton come up with the “triangulation” strategy, moving away from both the Gingrich Republicans and the hard-core liberals in Congress. Clinton’s approach helped get him reelected in 1996 and allowed for some bipartisan victories in those years, including welfare reform and the Balanced Budget Act that helped bring down the deficit.

When former President George W. Bush lost both the House and Senate in the 2006 elections, he began his post-election statement with humor, cheekily saying, to laughter, “Why all the glum faces?” when he spoke in the East Room on the day after the election. Bush acknowledged that he had experienced “a thumping,” but he also spoke about understanding “when campaigns end” and “when governing begins,” adding that “If you hold grudges in this line of work you’re never going to get anything done.”  While that lame-duck period for Bush was not characterized by a great deal of bipartisan legislating, there was the important 2008 bailout in the face of the financial meltdown that, after some initial hiccups, passed in a bipartisan fashion.

Clinton and Bush showed some willingness to change in the face of midterm election losses. The next two presidents to face such losses showed less interest in accommodating new realities. While former President Barack Obama did acknowledge that he had experienced “a shellacking” in losing the House in 2010, he also tried to minimize his role in the defeat, noting that, “a couple of great communicators, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, were standing at this podium two years into their presidency getting very similar questions.” He also refused to acknowledge he would make many changes in the face of a new Congress.

Obama did get reelected in 2012, but his days of big legislative victories were over. In 2013, he even made light of suggestions that he reach out to Republican leaders, joking at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2013, “Why don’t YOU get a drink with Mitch McConnell?” Obama would have to eat those words in November 2014, after another midterm election loss. With McConnell (R-Ky.) incoming as Senate majority leader, Obama said, “I would enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell.” Obama may have said the words, but everyone, including the new Senate majority leader, knew that his original 2013 joke was closer to his true sentiments.

In 2018, former President Donald Trump took his turn facing reporters after a midterm election loss. He warmly congratulated McConnell, who retained his position from the previous Congress, and then added to the sentiment, “perhaps, looks like, I would think, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” He also praised Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) work ethic, noting that “She works very hard.”  Still, the contrast between the appreciation for McConnell and the multiple qualifiers for Pelosi suggested Trump’s true feelings about the subject. That same press conference also demonstrated that a poor midterm result was not going to change his behavior or approach to the press, as he laid into CNN’s Jim Acosta, saying “CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person.”

Tomorrow, Joe Biden will have a choice for how to react to a likely election loss. Clinton and Bush took more accommodationist approaches, while Obama and Trump took more confrontational ones. But they all took their medicine and made an appearance. Holding post-election presidential press appearances is important, as it will give the American people a sense of what the next two years in Washington might look like.

Tevi Troy is a senior fellow and director of the Presidential Leadership Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He is a former White House aide and author of four books on the presidency, including “Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump.”