Jane Mayer and Evan Osnos on the Balance of Power at the Start of the Biden Administration

With Donald Trump rated the least popular President in the history of modern polling, President Joe Biden might feel confident in claiming a mandate to advance his progressive agenda. Yet congressional Democratic majorities are slim in the House of Representatives and razor-thin in the Senate. That gives a small number of Democratic conservatives and moderate Republicans outsized influence over which pieces of legislation can pass. Senator Mitch McConnell, in a power-sharing arrangement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, remains a force to be reckoned with. What will this balance of power mean for the new Administration? David Remnick poses this question to Jane Mayer, who has reported on McConnell’s tenure as a political operator, and to Evan Osnos, who covered Biden’s campaign and wrote a biography of the new President.