US President Joe Biden and his Democrats in Congress are in political trouble, casting a cloud over their ambitious climate agenda even as he and senior administration officials sought to reclaim leadership globally on the issue at the COP 26 conference over the Atlantic in Scotland.

Biden returned early Wednesday from Glasgow in the aftermath of his party’s poor showing in several key off-year elections that caught the White House and Democratic leaders by surprise, sparking a round of bitter recriminations within the party.