The notoriously left-wing New York Times editorial board rooted for President Biden during his campaign and celebrated his victory, but Biden's communication's director became livid after they expressed their opinion about his recent string of executive orders.
With the casual headline "Ease up on the Executive Actions, Joe," the editorial board criticized him for relying too heavily on executive orders. Since being sworn into office last week Biden has already signed dozens of orders ranging from dealing with issues on climate change to canceling the Keystone Pipeline.
With executive orders, there is always another presidential election just a few years off, threatening to upend everything. This creates instability and uncertainty that can carry significant economic as well as human costs. https://t.co/1nhQusuQ5r
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) January 28, 2021
"But this is no way to make law. A polarized, narrowly divided Congress may offer Mr. Biden little choice but to employ executive actions or see his entire agenda held hostage," the board stated. "These directives, however, are a flawed substitute for legislation. They are intended to provide guidance to the government and need to work within the discretion granted the executive by existing law or the Constitution ... [T]hey are not meant to serve as an end run around the will of Congress. By design, such actions are more limited in what they can achieve than legislation, and presidents who overreach invite intervention by the courts."
It's true that executive orders can be reversed with a quick stroke of the next president's pen, just as Biden is doing to former President Trump and him to Barack Obama and so on
"Undoing some of Mr. Trump’s excesses is necessary, but Mr. Biden’s legacy will depend on his ability to hammer out agreements with Congress," the board continued.
While the newspaper's criticism came from a place of sympathy, communications director Kate Bedingfield was fuming, nonetheless.
As the NYT ed board criticizes President Biden this am for taking swift executive action to reverse the most egregious actions of the Trump Admin, I can’t help but recall that during the primary they encouraged voters to consider what a president could accomplish through exec 1/
— Kate Bedingfield (@WHCommsDir) January 28, 2021
Action. So my question is which actions that the President took to reverse Donald Trump’s executive orders would they have liked to see him not pursue? /2
— Kate Bedingfield (@WHCommsDir) January 28, 2021
Of course we are also pursuing our agenda through legislation. It’s why we are working so hard to get the American Rescue Plan passed, for starters! 33
— Kate Bedingfield (@WHCommsDir) January 28, 2021
While the Time stood behind Biden all the way through the general election, they did not officially endorse him for the Democratic nomination. They instead went with Senator Amy Klobuchar and Senator Elizabeth Warren who would go on to win a total of zero primaries.
