President Joe Biden summoned a bizarre comeback Monday when asked about Speaker Mike Johnson trashing his new Supreme Court plan – calling the House Speaker ‘dead on arrival.’
Biden, who was back out in the country after stepping back and endorsing VP Kamala Harris as his party’s presumptive nominee, made the comment on a trip to Texas to tout his plan that would impose 18-year term limits on the Supreme Court.
That role put him back before the press, a week after his debate performance and subsequent interviews prompted top Democrats to push him to step back as his party’s standard bearer.
Johnson had earlier called his Supreme Court plan, which stands virtually no chance of overcoming a Senate filibuster or passing a Republican Congress, ‘dead on arrival.’
‘That’s what he is,’ said when a reporter asked him a bout. The reporter asked for clarification on the comment.
‘He is. Dead on arrival,’ Biden repeated.
President Joe Biden flew to Texas to pitch his plan to reform the Supreme Court. Asked about Speaker Mike Johnson calling his plan ‘dead on arrival,’ Biden called Johnson ‘dead on arrival’
Johnson also called it an effort to ‘delegitimize the Court’ and said the Republican House wouldn’t take it up.
He responded to Biden’s comment Monday afternoon by posting a clip from Biden’s debate against Donald Trump, when Trump ad-libbed: ‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he did either.’
Biden cleaned up the comment during his speech at the LBJ library, where he recounted the speaker’s comment. ‘Well I think his thinking is dead on arrival,’ Biden said.
Biden’s odd comment came moments after Biden smiled during an awkward tarmac greeting with Texas Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who was the first House member to call for him to step back from his reelection bid after his debate disaster.
It was advice Biden eventually took after getting pressure from a host of lawmakers who feared he would lose and perhaps cost Democrats the House and Senate.
His remarks came as the White House continues to feel its way forward on how it will handle an incumbent president who is stepping back from some of his political duties while Vice President Kamala Harris takes the reins – admitting Monday it will ‘recalibrate.’
“A major change happened in the past week. So we do have to recalibrate and figure out what the next six months are going to be. I mean that’s just fair, right, for us to just figure that all out,’ ’ White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One
‘You will see the president. He will be out there .. . we have to recalibrate and get a sense of what the next several months are going to be,’ she said.
Monday had Biden reasserting his role as the current president, both by pitching a far-reaching policy idea with an op-ed, and being the public face of his own administration.
Biden consulted with Harris on his plan to overhaul the Supreme Court – his first major policy announcement since stepping back before Harris became the presumptive Party nominee, the White House said, after Harris got behind the plan publicly.
‘He is. Dead on arrival,’ Biden said of Speaker Mike Johnson, who called his own plan to impose a code of conduct and term limits on the court D.O.A.
‘She was indeed involved in this. The president consulted her, she said. ‘He certainly was listened to her expertise in this arena as well,’ Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre spoke to Biden and Harris’ continued contacts, although she offered scant information on how Biden’s role might change in the coming months as a lame duck finishing out his term while Harris takes on increased responsibility as her party’s presumed nominee.
‘They have a very close relationship. They engage regularly. They meet for lunch. They talk on the phone,’ she said.
As for what role Biden might have in his party’s convention next month in Chicago, Jean-Pierre offered little information. ‘I’m going to let the convention speak to that,’ she said. And she said the campaign would speak to Biden’s travel – on a week where he has nothing announced other than a speech Monday and attending a service for the late Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee in Houston.
Biden also interacted with the press while leaving the White House mid-day Monday.
He responded to a shouted question about how the Supreme Court should be reformed.
‘Reform the Supreme Court because it needs to be reformed,’ was his circular response.
