Biden won with the weakest coattails in 60 years. That could make him dependent on GOP senators.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

PowerPost • Analysis

The Daily 202: Biden won with the weakest coattails in 60 years. That could make him dependent on GOP senators.

By James Hohmann
November 11, 2020 at 10:43 a.m. EST

with Mariana Alfaro

WILMINGTON, Del. – President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that he hopes to name a couple of Cabinet secretaries before Thanksgiving, but first he wants to talk with Mitch McConnell to gauge whom Republicans would help confirm. Around the same time, the Senate majority leader suggested he may not even acknowledge Biden’s victory for several more weeks.

“I haven’t had a chance to speak to Mitch,” Biden told reporters at the Queen theater here. “My expectation is that I will do that in the not-too-distant future. I think that the whole Republican Party has been put in a position, with a few notable exceptions, of being mildly intimidated by the sitting president.”

{snip}

Assuming Republicans maintain control of the Senate by winning one or both of the runoffs in Georgia on Jan. 5, which many strategists in both parties expect them to pull off, Biden would be the first president since George H.W. Bush in 1989 to take office without controlling both chambers of Congress. In fact, Biden would be the first Democratic president since Grover Cleveland in 1885 to take office with his party not in control of both chambers.

{snip}

James Hohmann
James Hohmann is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. He is the author of The Daily 202, The Post's flagship political newsletter, and the voice of its affiliated Big Idea audio briefing. Hohmann covered local news for The Post in the aughts and returned in 2015 after six years at Politico. Follow https://twitter.com/JamesHohmann

[aeromanKC]

1. Dems held the House and picked up at least 1 seat in the Senate.

The Dems in the House over performed in 2018 to take over the House in a 2010 tea party gerrymandered map. Didnt they pickup 40 seats in 2018? And in 2020 only lost less than a dozen of them. Renember, that is in a GOP gerrymandered map drawn up from their historic 2010 election. Dems could have done better in the Senate, but they still picked up at least 1 seat.

The narraitive that the Dems had a catastrophic election is not the case. Rather Trump so fucked up the country it will take more than 1 election cycle to recover.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. Bullshit drivel.

[SophieJean]

3. Agree.

[Marcuse]

4. Facts. Mitch could proudly garland any and all Biden nominees and bills. The line has been crossed.