White House

The president went from mired in crisis on Monday to an unexpected Friday victory lap.

President Joe Biden arrives speak at the top of the White House press briefing on Friday. | AP Photo/Ben Curtis

By Eli Stokols

10/04/2024 06:44 PM EDT

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A week that seemed at first to threaten Joe Biden’s legacy and the electoral chances of his designated successor instead ended with the president taking a metaphorical victory lap in the briefing room.

The dockworkers strike that endangered the country’s economy was settled Thursday night. And on Friday morning, at 8:30 a.m. on the dot, chief of staff Jeff Zients informed the senior aides gathering in his West Wing office for their daily morning meeting that the September jobs report beat expectations — by an astounding 100,000 jobs.

A White House facing three serious crises all week, suddenly, was mulling the best way for Biden to tout these successes. The president himself had recently expressed an eagerness to appear in the briefing room. And so when aides presented him with the option of doing so on Friday afternoon, he quickly agreed.

“We’ve proven them wrong,” the president crowed, after entering the room to audible gasps, during his 15 minutes at the podium.

He was referencing critics of the pandemic relief in the 2021 American Rescue Plan and putting his economic record in a broader context. “We’ve gone from an economy in crisis to literally having the strongest economy in the world,” he said.

That robust economy — and the avoiding of a prolonged work stoppage at ports that could have threatened it — offer lift for Vice President Kamala Harris as she enters the final weeks of an incredibly close presidential campaign. But Biden’s defiant triumphalism, just months after an intra-party revolt forced him to abandon his bid for a second term, was also a defense of his entire presidency.

“It really is a week........

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