Biden’s optimism collides with mounting political challenges


              President Joe Biden speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, June 16, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
            
              FILE - Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., questions witnesses during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to examine an update on the ongoing Federal response to COVID-19, June 16, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sanders, the last challenger eliminated as President Joe Biden clinched the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, is making his own Iowa trip this weekend to rally striking workers at construction and agriculture equipment plants.  (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
            
              FILE - Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams talks to the media during Georgia's primary election on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Atlanta. “We know there are going to be national headwinds, there always are," said Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, said recently. But she insisted she would be happy to campaign with President Joe Biden or top members of his administration: “I welcome anyone willing to lift Georgia up, to come to Georgia and help me get it done.” (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
            
              FILE - President Joe Biden speaks before signing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act in the State Dining Room of the White House, June 16, 2022, in Washington. Biden’s top political advisers are bracing for big midterm losses in November. They know that the party holding the White House nearly always losses congressional seats in the first midterm election of a new presidency. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
            
              FILE - President Joe Biden speaks about his infrastructure plan and his domestic agenda during a visit to the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, Pa., Oct. 20, 2021. As the challenges confronting Biden intensify, his predictions of a rosy political future for the Democratic Party are growing bolder. The assessments, delivered in speeches, fundraisers and conversations with friends and allies, seem at odds with a country that he acknowledged this week was “really, really down,” burdened by a pandemic, surging gas prices and spiking inflation. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
            
              FILE - Assistant to the President and White House Counsel Dana Remus, left, and Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O'Malley Dillon, right, walk toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington to join President Joe Biden for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., July 13, 2021. O'Malley Dillon coordinates strategy among the White House, the Democratic National Committee and an array of outside party groups. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
            
              FILE - President Joe Biden listens to a question during an interview with the Associated Press in the Oval Office of the White House, June 16, 2022, in Washington.  Biden’s top political advisers are bracing for big midterm losses in November. They know that the party holding the White House nearly always losses congressional seats in the first midterm election of a new presidency. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
            
              FILE - A man pumps gas at a mini-mart in Pittsburgh on June 15, 2022. As the challenges confronting President Joe Biden intensify, his predictions of a rosy political future for the Democratic Party are growing bolder. The assessments, delivered in speeches, fundraisers and conversations with friends and allies, seem at odds with a country that he acknowledged this week was “really, really down,” burdened by a pandemic, surging gas prices and spiking inflation. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
            
              FILE - President Joe Biden speaks at United Performance Metals in Hamilton, Ohio, May 6, 2022. As the challenges confronting Biden intensify, his predictions of a rosy political future for the Democratic Party are growing bolder. The assessments, delivered in speeches, fundraisers and conversations with friends and allies, seem at odds with a country that he acknowledged this week was “really, really down,” burdened by a pandemic, surging gas prices and spiking inflation. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
            
              President Joe Biden speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, June 16, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Biden’s optimism collides with mounting political challenges