May 25, 2022

President Joe Biden took office facing an historic convergence of crises. Since then, his list of challenges has only grown.

The mass killing of 19 children at a Texas school on Tuesday has become the latest test for a president facing a crucible like few of his predecessors have. Biden helms the nation that feels, at times, like it is tearing at the seams. It was personified this week as his first trip to Asia — designed to address competition with China, the foreign policy challenge deemed most pressing by the administration — was bookended by a pair of mass shootings that claimed the lives of people going about the most routine of American rituals, shopping for groceries and attending school.

“Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” the president plaintively asked just minutes upon returning home. “Why do we keep letting this happen?”

Read more:

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/25/biden-presidency-texas-shooting-crisis-00035113