US President Joe Biden sits at his desk ahead of addressing the nation on averting default and the Bipartisan Budget Agreement, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, June 2, 2023. Even as Democrats simmered, and at some points outright boiled over with frustration as slivers of potential agreements reached public view, Biden held back. It was also a chance to bust out of the seams of the close-to-the-vest messaging strategy that he and the three senior members of his team maintained during the three weeks of painstaking negotiations.Įven as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his top two negotiators maintained a steady drumbeat of public statements and strategic messaging, the White House kept their powder dry. “I know bipartisanship is hard and unity is hard, but we can never stop trying, because at moments like this one, the ones we just faced where the American economy and the world economy is at risk of collapsing, there is no other way,” Biden said Friday.

And the moment offered Biden an opportunity to reflect what he views as the inextricable connection between the deal, the case for his presidency he made to voters more than two years prior and the one he will count on to secure him another four years in 17 months and two days. President Joe Biden sat behind the Resolute Desk in his first evening Oval Office address with a clear purpose: to deliver the final word.Ī bipartisan bill to avert the crisis that loomed over Washington for most of the year so far was in hand.

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