Biden hunts for a sustainable midterms line of attack

The Daily 202 has always felt conflicted about the “wrong track” polling number, however predictive it might be of voter yearnings for political change.

Democrats who feel that way might cite the Supreme Court wiping out a half-century of access to abortion as a constitutional right. Unhappy Republicans might point to the southern border. Some of those who gave a thumbs down to Obamacare did so because it didn’t go far enough.

But with global forces like rampant inflation, painfully high gas prices, and a stubborn pandemic still killing hundreds of Americans every week, as well as uniquely American plagues like the gun violence that afflicts communities with metronomic regularity, Biden clearly has to deal with a sour national mood, even among his own party.

Biden hasn’t been shy about touting the parts of his record he thinks are net pluses: The (modest) bipartisan gun law he just signed, the rip-roaring job growth on his watch, the trillions of dollars in aid to struggling Americans, among others.

But he’s also paraded a cast of villains.

Gas prices? Inflation? Blame Russian President Vladimir Putin (“Putin’s price hike” as recently as June 22, even though prices were soaring well before Moscow expanded its war in Ukraine on February 24.)

Gas prices, again? Greedy oil and gas companies.

After angering Democrats with a relatively tepid response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Biden won liberal plaudits by escalating his rhetoric (if not his policy response), pushing to eliminate the Senate filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade and sharply attacking the court.

Wrapping up a recent trip to Europe, Biden used words like “outrageous” and “mistake” and even said the court’s recent decisions were “destabilizing” to the republic.

He has not publicly repeated the “destabilizing” charge.

But a day after that comment, during a virtual meeting with governors, he called Dobbs “a terrible, extreme decision,” said he shared “public outrage at this extremist court,” railed at “extremist governors” unfavorable to access to abortion, and invited Americans to vote Democratic as the best solution.

“We either elect federal senators and representatives who will codify Roe, or Republicans who will elect the House and Senate will try to ban abortions nationwide,” he said. “This is going to go one way or the other after November.”

Biden doesn’t always stick with his harsh rhetoric.

In 2021, he regularly denounced Republican efforts to roll back election practices they blame for Donald Trump’s defeat as a 21st-century version of the racist Jim Crow laws to keep Blacks from voting. He does not appear to have done so in 2022.

More recently, while he has regularly condemned Putin, Biden hasn’t repeated his memorable declaration that the former KGB officer “cannot remain in power” as a consequence of atrocities in Ukraine.

The ebbs and flows of Biden’s rhetoric and the high stakes of this year’s elections made my colleague Matt Viser’s account of what he called the president’s “campaign-style” trip to Ohio on Wednesday a must-read.

“Biden offered a sharper distillation of how he views the Republican Party and called out several Republican senators by name for voting against some of his policies not out of principle but out of fear.

“‘They’re afraid to … afraid to ― because the Trumpers would literally take them out,’ Biden said. ‘Not a joke. That’s how bad it’s gotten.’”

“He ridiculed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for threatening to scuttle legislation designed to boost semiconductor manufacturing. He called a plan from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) ‘shameful.’ And he triggered boos from the crowd at the mention of the name of Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).”

Tellingly, he repeatedly invoked Trump, though not always by name. “The previous administration” favored the rich and oversaw cataclysmic job losses when the pandemic hit, he said. He did not mention Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election or the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Biden allies also invoked Trump in response to recent criticisms from fellow Democrats, as reported by CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere. Dovere quoted former senior West Wing adviser Cedric Richmond as saying that fault-finding is “the same foolishness that got us Donald Trump — ‘Hillary wasn’t good enough,’ ‘She’s not fighting hard enough.'”

Does that work? Will it work? It could depend on whether Trump announces before the midterms that he’s running for reelection.

Senate Democrats, Manchin reach agreement on key part of retooled economic package

“Today, Senate Democrats, who are seeking to retool their long-stalled economic package, have reached an agreement with Sen. Joe Machin III (D-W.Va.), a key holdout, on tax provisions intended to keep Medicare solvent. The development is a key step to reviving legislation that could pass without Republican votes after negotiations broke down last year on the $2 trillion Build Back Better Act,” John Wagner and Mariana Alfaro report.

Brittney Griner pleads guilty to drug charges in Russian court

“American WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to carrying cannabis oil on the second day of a trial in Moscow that could see her sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to media reports from the court,” Robyn Dixon reports.

Boris Johnson resigns after party revolt, will stay on till new leader chosen

“Boris Johnson stepped down as leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday, making way for a new prime minister, following an avalanche of resignations by members of his party that eroded his authority and paralyzed the British government,” Karla Adam and William Booth report.

House committee calls CEOs of gun manufacturer to testify

“The House Oversight Committee is ramping up its investigation into gun manufacturers and has requested that CEOs of three major gun manufacturers appear before Congress at the end of the month in the wake of a string of harrowing mass shootings involving assault-style rifles that have killed and injured scores of Americans,” Jacqueline Alemany reports.

Lunchtime reads from The Post

American Cartel: Inside the battle to bring down the opioid industry

“Today, America’s opioid crisis is worse than ever. Last year, the nation logged a record-breaking 100,000 drug overdose deaths, most of them due to fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin. There is no end in sight as Mexican drug cartels flood the country with shipments of the cheap and highly addictive synthetic opioid,” Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz report.

“Most people don’t know the real story of the opioid epidemic. It’s not solely about Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. It’s about how a constellation of drug companies went after the DEA, and how the DEA lost that war, not to the cartels, but to lobbyists and lawmakers and K Street attorneys.”

Former FBI leaders who drew Trump’s ire were both audited by IRS

“The IRS conducted audits in recent years of two of former president Donald Trump’s most frequent targets of criticism, former FBI director James B. Comey and his deputy, leading Comey to question whether the audits were motivated by political payback against the law enforcement leaders who investigated Trump and his campaign,” Josh Dawsey and Devlin Barrett report.

To get banned abortion pills, patients turn to legally risky tactics

“The Biden administration has said the drugs have been authorized as safe and effective for use in all 50 states. But remote providers could be targeted in criminal probes by local and state prosecutors, get hit with civil lawsuits, and lose their medical licenses if they violate rules by prescribing and shipping pills to people in states where abortion is illegal,” Christopher Rowland reports.

Heads of FBI, MI5 issue joint warning on Chinese spying

“The heads of the FBI and Britain’s domestic security service issued sharply worded warnings to business leaders about the threats posed by Chinese espionage, especially spying aimed at stealing Western technology companies’ intellectual property,” the Wall Street Journal‘s Max Colchester reports.

“In a rare joint appearance on Wednesday at the headquarters of MI5, Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Ken…