FIFTY-NINE
Senator Sanders, primary foe turned key supporter, and other Senate Democrats, such as Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Jon Tester of Montana, and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, mingled outside the Oval Office on February 3. They looked around and laughed. Trump was gone.
“I would just have panic attacks sometimes walking out,” Stabenow told them, recounting her past visits to see Trump. “No one was ever in a good mood either going in or coming out, and usually horrified when he came out. It was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this.’ ”
When Stabenow walked into the Oval, she told Biden, “You can’t see my smile beaming under this mask, but I can assure you I’m beaming here.”
Biden and his senior White House advisers had quickly turned their attention away from Collins, Portman and the other Republicans to Pelosi and Schumer, and to congressional Democrats. They were determined to keep this plan moving, to show movement on their side.
Schumer’s reconciliation push for the rescue plan had the Senate Democrats in high spirits—a sign they mattered and would not be bit players this time. They were tired of watching Senate moderates and the busy “gangs” of centrists dominate the deals and headlines.
Biden got right to it. The United States was in the middle of a historic crisis, he told them. He pulled out his card with the number of vaccinations from the previous day—over 1.5 million people.
We are going to be able to do much better than we originally thought for the first 100 days, Biden said. But that is not all. We have this rescue plan, and we can’t do it without you. All of us, as Democrats, need to be a cohesive team, he said.
Biden then went around the room, asking for input not only on the policy but on how to sell it to the country. This is an incredible moment for the nation and for us, he said.
It was part of Biden’s style. Biden wanted details. Some saw Biden as a wonk. Others saw a president possibly worried about being caught unprepared or confused, as he had been a few times during the campaign. Trump had repeatedly challenged Biden to take a cognitive test and raised questions about his mental sharpness. “Something’s going on,” Trump told his aides.
Biden detested Trump’s taunts and as president made sure to stay alert to reporters.
“What are they going to yell at me?” Biden would often ask his advisers before welcoming a press contingent into the Oval Office for a photo opportunity. “What are they going to ask?”
On February 3, Biden turned to the room of senators and nodded up at the portrait of FDR. Terrible times make great presidents, he said.
“I would have been much happier to be a good president, but here we are.”
He brought up the February 1 meeting with Senate Republicans. If we can get the Republicans to join us, that’d be great, he said. But I just met with them and I don’t get any sense that there is really a seriousness there. But we will try. In the end, it’s going to be up to us to get this done.
I know some of you are talking to the moderate Republicans and that’s great, he added. If you can get more support, we need it. You know me, I’d much rather do that. But the important thing is we get things done for people.
Stabenow said bipartisanship was now being redefined in the Biden era, away from deal cutting with Republican lawmakers to crafting policy that had appeal to both Democrats and Republican voters. Democrats should focus on those voters rather than the GOP’s splintered, unsteady leaders in Congress. Biden agreed. Go right to the voters.
Senator Jon Tester of Montana, 64 years old, a gentle giant with a crew cut, told Biden this was his first time ever in the Oval Office. His voice was thick with emotion. He had been in the Senate since 2007. Fourteen years, through Obama and Trump, and this was his first time there.
“Pretty amazing room, it was pretty cool,” Tester told a local news station later. He grinned. “It truly is an oval office. The doors are even oval.”
Sanders, now the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, spoke up. Stick with going big, he implored Biden. He argued it was not just about passing a huge rescue bill but about securing the working-class vote for a generation. It was about proving to them the federal government worked. Trump had stolen them away with his trade war and tariffs against China. To get them back, you had to convince them the Democrats were on their side, looking out for the working class.
The future of American democracy depends on which party is the party of the working class, Sanders, 79, added in his raspy, Brooklyn accent. Democrats must have deep appeal to people on the margins, the strugglers. He believed the Democratic Party was increasingly too cozy with the elites, the educated class with power and connections.
He was looking for that Scranton vein, not the Ivy League through line in Biden’s inner circle.
“If we cannot deliver, authoritarianism may be on the march,” Sanders said.
Sanders had grown up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, the son of a Polish immigrant paint salesman who never made enough money to fulfill his wife’s dreams of not living in a rent-controlled apartment. Much of his family was wiped out in Poland during the Holocaust.
He told Biden and his colleagues they could not take anything for granted after January 6. Who says more horror could not happen here?
“As a kid, I read a lot about the Holocaust and Germany in the 1930s,” Sanders later told others. “Germany was one of the most cultured countries in Europe. One of the most advanced countries. So how could a country of Beethoven, of so many great poets and writers, and Einstein, progress to barbarianism?
“How does that happen? We have to tackle that question. And it’s not easy.”
Biden called Collins on Super Bowl Sunday, February 7.
“It’s a really bad move, Mr. President,” Collins said, “that Chuck has gone to reconciliation.” It was a lost opportunity. “Our offer was very sincere—and it wasn’t the final offer.”
She saw this was an unexpected chance to have a Susan to Joe, Joe to Susan talk. She and the group of nine other Republicans had increased their proposal by $32 billion, going from $618 billion to $650 billion. The new money would be used to increase the total amount going toward stimulus checks, with a targeted group of Americans now getting $1,400 checks. She and other Republicans believed that was a significant jump. That used to be real money.
Biden expressed interest in continuing to work with her and the other Republicans, but he made no firm commitments. It was only a 5 percent increase. They were more than miles apart.
Collins told him it was not an accident she had 10 Republicans in her group. Ten of them plus 50 Democrats equaled 60 votes, enough to stop a filibuster. The magic 60, she said.
“Mr. President, I just want you to be aware that I’m on the call!” said a male voice breaking directly into the phone call. It was Brian Deese, Biden’s director of the National Economic Council.
Biden seemed surprised. Collins was appalled. What was going on? How could this happen? She thought it was a private White House call. Did staff monitor, listen in or join all of Biden’s phone calls?
Suddenly more chimes rang.
Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing!
Clearly others were joining.
Who? What? How?
Both Biden and Collins immediately became more cautious in their remarks to each other because of the intrusion. It was no longer Joe to Susan, Susan to Joe. Collins had no idea who else was listening. She, however, never asked or found out what was going on.
It sure was a conversation stopper. A snapshot of politics and their lives in 2021. Technology taking over, everyone on the line, running all their lives. Deese’s interjection unnerved her—it was another staffer monitoring, another incident in the realm of Klain’s head shakes. Another shadow over the shoulder of Joe.
To Biden and Klain, Collins was polite and gracious, but she never offered anything they could take seriously. Collins was always explaining why Biden was wrong, in a nice way. They gave her credit for her consistency. But they saw her latest floated offer, moving up a bit to $650 billion, as a very slow walk.
Biden and the White House staff were simultaneously working hard on Senator Murkowski to get her vote for the rescue bill. She was the last hope for a Republican vote, but they finally gave up on her.
“Listen,” Biden said, “she’s probably not going to be with us. But I like her, and I want to help her. She’s not going to be with us on this vote. But it may very well be that somewhere down the road she will be with us. So, whether or not she’s going to be with us on this package, I want to make sure we take care of her.”
Alaska’s share from the rescue bill was eventually increased from $800 million to $1.25 billion.