Biden starts second year with charm offensive and bad polls

US: The White House launched a charm offensive, complete with a Tom Hanks video, to mark Joe Biden’s first year as president Thursday, but dire new polls and a major congressional setback told another story.

Biden, who was sworn in to replace Donald Trump at noon last January 20, marked the day by meeting with top Cabinet members in charge of rolling out his signature infrastructure spending plan, a $1.2 trillion splurge he got passed in November with rare bipartisan support.

“Our nation has never fully made this kind of investment,” Biden said, celebrating one of his biggest wins of last year — and a project that should keep delivering good news as bridges, roads and other large public works roll out.

The previous evening, the 79-year-old Democrat held an epic press conference lasting an hour and 52 minutes, longer even than the famously rambling events Trump used to stage.

Defending himself on his handling of the Covid pandemic and roaring inflation, Biden said he’d got “a lot done” in the face of unprecedented difficulties for a president.

“He was having a good time,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

Despite the cheerful messaging, Biden begins his second year as President facing a slew of bad news, including failure in the Senate late Wednesday of his cherished push for election law reforms — something he has said is needed to safeguard US democracy from Trump supporters’ attempts at fixing the vote.

The polls also seem to be getting only worse. According to new NBC and AP-NORC polls, 54 percent and 56 percent of Americans respectively disapprove of Biden’s performance. – INDIA TODAY