U.S. media on Friday warned of possible political implications of the local banking crisis for President Joe Biden.

President Biden could be damned if he saves the banks or damned if he does not,  CNN reported, recalling that Biden fully understands the massive political risks he faces.

Another major industry intervention to prop up a bank on Thursday – not by the government but under the auspices of the administration – underscored the still grave political peril of the sudden crisis that erupted just over a week ago.

Biden intimately understands the political risks he faces here. As vice president in the Obama administration, he was inside the somber meetings that made fateful decisions about government bailouts after a new president inherited the worst financial crisis in more than 70 years.

Bailouts to banks helped save the US economy but stoked a political backlash that nurtured the Tea Party movement, which wiped out House Democrats in the 2010 midterms.

Barack Obama wrote in his autobiography, “A Promised Land,” that while Americans early in his term were frustrated with the glacial recovery from the 2008 crisis, “The bank bailout sent them over the edge.”

“Across the political spectrum, voters considered the bank bailouts a scam that had allowed the barons of finance to emerging from the crisis relatively unscathed,” Obama wrote.

Biden’s political future may depend on avoiding such voter fury.

For the time being, President Biden claimed the U.S. banking system is “safe and secure”, after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the closure of Signature Bank.

According to the President, citizens should not be afraid, because their deposits “will be there when they need them”. (PL)