White House strikes business-as-usual tone after McCarthy’s ouster as Biden campaign highlights GOP disarray

By Kayla Tausche, Arlette Saenz and Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — President Joe Biden is expected to strike a “business as usual” tone in the wake of Kevin McCarthy’s unprecedented fall as House speaker, according to two officials, while the Democrat’s campaign is using social media to highlight the GOP’s disarray.

It underscores the dueling realities of the situation: The White House is going to have to grapple with working with the new speaker and the hard work of legislating, while the campaign is seeking to capitalize on the politics of the moment.

Biden spoke Wednesday on continued efforts to forgive student loans, as borrower payments restart this week for the first time in more than three years, but the president also used his remarks to lament the division in the nation’s capital.

“We need to change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington,” the president said Wednesday. “Now we have strong disagreements, but we need to stop seeing each other as enemies.”

And the White House will try to project calm to counter the chaos on Capitol Hill, officials said, a concerted effort that began weeks ago amid the government funding fight that reached its crescendo with McCarthy’s ouster.

Meanwhile, the Biden campaign and national Democrats were quick to highlight the Republican showdown over a new speaker. The Democratic National Committee called the GOP a “three-ring circus” in a post on social media accompanied by an image of a clown face. The Biden campaign has also seized on the Republican infighting as a contrast to the president’s work.

“Democrats spent today bringing down drug prices,” @BidenHQ, the Biden campaign’s rapid response account, posted on the social media site X Tuesday evening. “Republicans spent today bringing down the Speaker they themselves elected.”

That same campaign account also has sought to spotlight comments from Republicans on the drama around the speaker’s debate and government funding, including a social media post from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene dubbing former President Donald Trump the “real leader of the Republican Party” alongside an image of him holding the speaker’s gavel.

“So true,” @BidenHQ responded.

As the government funding debate played out on Capitol Hill last month, the White House blasted regular messaging emails brandishing “split screen” displays between Democrats and Republicans.

The White House continued that messaging this week, starting on Tuesday as they referenced the negotiation of drug prices covered by Medicare – and drew a contrast to a group of Republicans trying to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act that authorized the government to seek lower prices for the drugs. On Wednesday, it highlighted the student loan move. By doing so, the administration was trying to establish a counterpoint on items that are directly related, without drawing attention to the speaker fracas.

“The American people deserve leadership that puts the issues affecting their lives front and center, as President Biden did today with more historic action to lower prescription drug prices,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said her statement on the House’s next moves Tuesday.

Biden will soon face the reality of working with a new speaker, whose path forward could impact some of the White House’s immediate priorities, including funding the government, which faces a November 17 deadline, and securing additional aid for Ukraine.

Since assistance for Ukraine was excluded from the recent short-term government funding measure, the White House has sought to assuage concerns that a leadership change could upend its fight to secure billions in additional defense funding for the war-torn country

“All I can tell you is that we continue to have conversations with House Republicans at various levels, including the leadership level, and there’s widespread support a majority of support for helping Ukraine,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday. “There’s a small number of very vocal, a small minority of vocal members who are pushing back on that, but they don’t represent their party. They don’t represent their leadership.”

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