Surrounded by unions, the 79-year-old Democrat will deliver a speech in Cleveland, bastion of the American manufacturing industry, to praise a program supposed to protect the pensions of "millions" of workers, according to the White House.

The president wants to give the impression of being in charge at a time when record inflation is eating into Americans' purchasing power and threatening economic growth, with consumption being the main engine of the United States economy.

Joe Biden "is a president who works tirelessly, day after day, for the American people" assured his spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre during a press conference on Tuesday.

"That's what matters to him."

The choice of Ohio, which the Democrat is visiting for the sixth time since the start of his presidency, is certainly not trivial, four months before the midterm legislative elections.

Abortion, shootings, police

The American leader, who has campaigned on his proximity to the working class, finds a crowd he likes in Cleveland, at a time when annoyance among progressives in his camp is felt in Washington.

Pro-abortion protest in Tucson, Arizona on July 4, 2022 SANDY HUFFAKER AFP

The left wing of the Democratic Party, which has rallied around Joe Biden's moderate bid to beat Donald Trump in 2020, is increasingly outspoken in its frustration at seeing the president helpless in the face of the cancellation of the right to abortion and unable to stem the litany of shootings that mourn America.

"We simply cannot make promises, call people to vote, and then refuse to use our full powers," young elected official Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned after the Supreme Court's decision to blast the right to abortion.

"We still have time to fix this problem and to act, but we must be bold," she pleaded.

In Cleveland, Joe Biden will also be about sixty kilometers from Akron, a small town which is demonstrating against the homicide of a black man riddled with bullets by police last week, a painful reminder of the president's inability to pass his great police reform promised after the death of George Floyd.

Progressives fear that posture will cost them dearly in November's midterm elections.

"You can't really win an election with a sticker that says, 'well, we can't do much, but the other side is much worse'", judged Senator Bernie Sanders, a great figure on the American left. .

US Senator Bernie Sanders, in New York, April 24, 2022 Kena Betancur AFP

The challenge, during this traditionally perilous election for the president's party, is to save the slim majority of Democrats in the American Congress.

The election of the future senator from Ohio, a position hitherto held by a Republican, is one that will be closely followed.

© 2022 AFP