They see President Biden’s announcement last week that he supports overturning the Senate standoff over codifying abortion rights at the federal level as a step in the right direction, but it hardly quelled their anger. “You’d really think that this decision hadn’t even leaked because it seems very clear that there’s been no real planning from the White House,” said Max Burns, a progressive strategist who works on the down-ballot races ahead of the midterm elections. referring to the leak earlier this summer of a draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “I don’t know how a foretold decision surprises you!” “Every senior official who talks about our post-Roe nightmare seems to have a different narrative,” he continued, “which is a sign that there is no narrative at all.” “Sorry,” Burns concluded, “that’s a point of enormous anger.” Burns is not alone. A sense of frustration that the Biden administration did not do enough to protect women during this critical, early court revelation overturned the landmark decision on abortion rights. Hours after the decision, Biden gave an impassioned speech about the decision, calling it a “tragic mistake.” “This decision should not be the last word. My administration will use all of its appropriate, legal powers, but Congress must act,” Biden said. But the speech did not calm many. And the progressive backlash was particularly strong. Lawmakers and activists on the left urged Biden and the entire White House to present a clear message of urgency to Americans about the importance of the decision and provide a unified roadmap of practical options to help people maintain access across the spectrum of reproductive health care. On Thursday, the president appeared to be turning in a new direction. During a global news conference, Biden asked the closely-held Democratic majority in the Senate to modify the longstanding filibuster rule to protect Roe’s status. That would allow Democrats to pass a bill without Republican votes. “I think we need to codify Roe v. Wade into law, and the way to do that is to make sure Congress votes on it,” he said from a NATO conference in Madrid, Spain. “If the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, we should provide an exception for that.” Finally, honest liberals declared, a step in the right direction. Some acknowledged that the president and his administration appear to be getting the message. “Now we’re talking!” Ocascio-Cortez tweeted after Biden’s statement. “People have come to see a real, dynamic push for this. Use the bully pulpit. We need more.” The administration also received praise after the Department of Health and Human Services launched a website dedicated to helping people find birth control and abortion services. “I think we’re starting to see some more concrete steps, and we certainly have more of them,” said Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, senior legal and policy adviser at the global reproductive justice organization Ipas. “I certainly wouldn’t necessarily say they’re flat-footed,” she added, referring to the administration. But the anger isn’t likely to go away. Progressives have warned that the decision could cause Democrats to lose the House and Senate if they don’t mobilize accordingly, and many believe more steps should be taken in the short term to speak to voters. In recent days, they have raised concerns about everything from privacy in health data-sharing apps to abortion centers closing in critical states. In the absence of a sufficiently urgent national response from the White House, in the eyes of some on the left, progressives have brought new attention to polling and advertising to bolster the issue. In a MoveOn poll obtained exclusively by The Hill, likely voters in four battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — overwhelmingly support abortion access and disapprove of the decision to overturn Roe, evidence that the Democrats are rolling. to show how the decision can work to their advantage at the ballot box. In Arizona, one of the Democrats’ biggest midterm targets and which Biden won in 2020, 60% of likely voters polled said they believed abortion should be legal. In another sign of the decision’s potential importance to the campaign trail, a number of liberal pro-choice groups have launched large-scale ad buys in major Senate states such as Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. This overseas work is meant to fill in areas where the administration could fail, some say. “The president can’t make anybody do anything,” said Democratic Sen. Antjuan Seawright. “Executive power plays a role. The legislative branch and the judiciary [branch] plays a part. The judiciary [branch] is clear about their role. It is to disrupt,” he said. “Now we have to clean up the legislative branch, particularly the United States Senate.” But some Democrats say the push to impeach the Senate — from inside the White House on down — has become something of a crutch in the debate. While it’s true that two moderates, Sens. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have complicated much of Biden’s agenda by failing to yield to the filibuster, some say Bidenworld should be more dynamic. design and response. “The White House can rightfully blame Manchin and Sinema (and 50 GOP senators) for the logjam in the Senate,” Burns said, “but that doesn’t explain why the White House doesn’t seem to have a clear way. narrative or his own plan of action’. “They keep sending Kamala Harris to embarrass herself in front of a national audience by texting the White House, and then she seems to give up completely,” he said. Earlier this week, Harris, who has struggled to gain a solid footing during her tenure as vice president, said “not now” when asked on CNN if administration officials were considering the option of providing access to abortion services on federal lands. a line that put her at odds with progressives like Ocasio-Cortez who called it one of many “small steps” that could be taken, including in Republican-controlled states. Others defending the administration, however, described much of the discontent among progressives as “internet noise” that doesn’t necessarily resonate with many Democratic voters. These voices take comfort in knowing that voters did choose Biden over other contenders to lead the country away from Trump, and they believe the President deserves some breathing room in his first term. “They find themselves lining up or dancing to the activists’ tune,” Seawright said of progressives. “And yes, that’s important, but that’s not always the most important thing because governing and campaigning can be two different things.” To be sure, the anger is not limited to the left wing. Even some Republicans wondered aloud why the opposing party had not already taken steps to codify the decision over the past five decades. Here’s the best place to watch the 4th of July fireworks in DC Noem says ‘the time is right’ for paid family leave “Democrats, what have you been doing all these years not codifying Roe?” said Reena Shah, a GOP operative who started Republican Women for Biden during the last election. While some far-right GOP candidates and lawmakers on Capitol Hill cheered the SCOTUS move, others have privately expressed shock that Democrats are in this position now. “I have no respect for these judges because they shouldn’t have done that,” he said.
