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President Biden laughed Wednesday when a reporter told him on the day after the midterm elections that former President Donald Trump’s political movement is still strong.
“Oh yeah?” Mr. Biden replied with a smirk.
Mr. Biden dismissed Republicans’ smaller-than-expected gains in Tuesday’s congressional elections, a midterm in which some in the GOP blamed Mr. Trump’s influence for the relatively lackluster showing. The president said his main takeaway was not to change his approach to governing.
“I’m not going to change anything in any fundamental way,” the president said at a rare press conference in the East Room of the White House. “We’re just getting started. While the press and the pundits were predicting a giant red wave, it didn’t happen.”
As for Mr. Trump’s expected announcement next week that he will run again in 2024, Mr. Biden said, “We just have to demonstrate that he will not take power if he does run.”
Mr. Biden took a victory lap Wednesday, arguing that Democrats avoided a shellacking in the midterm elections because his party’s candidates and policies are popular with the American people.
He hailed the election results as “a good day for Democracy,” while acknowledging that not all races had yet been decided.
“We’ve lost very few seats for certain,” Mr. Biden said. “We still have the possibility of keeping the House but it’s going to be close.”
While Republicans are likely to squeak out control of the House, the Senate remains up for grabs with critical races in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia undecided. The Georgia Senate race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker appears to be headed to a runoff election that will be decided next month.
The tight midterm races defied expectations of an “red wave” of conservative victories fueled by voter anger towards Mr.
