The return to domestic matters was a sign of what is to come as the midterm season draws closer.
Russia will remain a priority for the administration, Mr. Biden’s advisers say, but it is one that has to be balanced with meeting the domestic challenges of rising prices and an unpredictable coronavirus pandemic. There is also the broader challenge of illustrating what the administration has done while trying to explain why more has not been accomplished on Mr. Biden’s other promises, which include moving forward on voting rights initiatives, curbing prescription drug prices and combating climate change.
Biden officials say the administration, from the president on down, understands the need to acknowledge the sticker shock the American public is feeling as the conflict in Ukraine continues. The White House wants to send the president into the country to promote his agenda more often as the midterm season begins in earnest — with the worrisome caveat, they say, that the coronavirus and Russia could continue to pull him away.
“Presidents don’t choose the circumstances under which they govern,” the Democratic strategist David Axelrod said in an interview. “You wake up every day with the knowledge that something unwelcome may happen. A lot of these situations are unsatisfying.”
One senior administration official said Mr. Biden would also need to draw more of a contrast with the Republican Party — specifically its leader, former President Donald J. Trump — as he begins traveling the country to solicit donations and assist Democrats in vulnerable districts. Mr. Biden said in three speeches during his trip that the Republican Party had morphed into one focused more on culture wars than what he called “traditional” conservative doctrine.
“There’s nothing conservative about deciding you’re going to throw Disney out of its present posture because, Mickey Mouse? In fact, you think we should not be able to say, you know, ‘gay’?” Mr. Biden said in Seattle, referring to a clash between the theme park and Florida lawmakers over a law that prohibits classroom instruction and discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary school grades.
On Friday, he also called the Trump-era Republican lawmaker a “different breed of cat” from those he knew from his time in the Senate, a reference to Republican leaders who privately said Mr. Trump was responsible for inciting the deadly riot on Jan.6, 2021, and vowed to drive him from politics but have publicly sought Mr. Trump’s favor.