The nation stood on the brink of a crisis this week but the putative president was nowhere to be found amid the last-minute scrambling and negotiations to pass a critical spending bill and avoid a partial government shutdown over Christmas.

President Joe Biden, who still has one more month to serve in that role, was decidedly uninvolved in the week's chaos of failed proposals and threats of a potentially economically devastating shutdown, and the White House had no real explanation for his non-involvement, Fox News reported.

Instead, the president's chief spokesperson focused solely on pointing fingers at Republicans for everything that occurred when asked why Biden hadn't been publicly engaged on the important matter of keeping the government funded and fully operational.

Where's Biden been this week?

During a Friday press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked repeatedly about President Biden's lack of public appearances or comments amid the congressional standoff over a spending bill and the looming threat of a partial government shutdown just before Christmas.

Jean-Pierre repeatedly dodged the questions about Biden, though, as she instead cast blame for the chaos on House Republicans, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), President-elect Donald Trump, and his "billionaire friends" like Elon Musk, whose criticisms of an initial bipartisan deal resulted in it being scuttled before it came up for a vote.

"All Americans need to know that Republicans are getting in the way here and they are the ones who have created this mess. That's the reality. That's the fact," Jean-Pierre said when asked why Biden hadn't spoken publicly on the situation. "This is not the first time we've been here. And the president has had this approach before. He understands how Congress works. He's been around for some time. He understands what strategy works here to get this done."

She went on to suggest that Biden had spoken privately with Democratic congressional leaders and insisted, "He has been getting regular updates from his team. His team has been in touch with congressional members from both sides of the aisle."

"Republicans need to stop playing politics with a government shutdown. And they are doing the bidding -- they're doing the bidding of their billionaire friends. That's what we're seeing at the expense of hard-working Americans," Jean-Pierre added. "There is a bipartisan agreement that Republicans tanked because of what they were directed to do by Elon Musk and President-elect Trump. That's what happened. That is the reality that we're in now."

Crisis averted with Biden's signature

After the initial proposed spending bill was pulled before a vote amid sharp criticism over its bloated size and inclusion of costly unrelated policy provisions, a slimmed-down version was offered up by Speaker Johnson on Thursday but was similarly rejected and voted down by the House, per Fox News.

An even more scaled-back bill was put forward on Friday, just hours before the deadline to avert a shutdown, and it somehow cleared both the House and Senate before it was signed into law on Saturday by President Biden.

In a statement, Biden said, "The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open and delivers the urgently needed disaster relief that I requested for recovering communities as well as the funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge."

"This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted. But it rejects the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires that Republicans sought, and it ensures the government can continue to operate at full capacity," he added. "That’s good news for the American people, especially as families gather to celebrate this holiday season."

Keeping the "diminished" president hidden from the public

Coincidentally enough, President Biden's noticeable public absence from the spending bill and shutdown drama came amid intense scrutiny of the president and those who surround him following a damning Wall Street Journal report about how the White House has covered for an increasingly "diminished" elderly president for the past four years.

That lengthy and detailed report exposed how Biden's handlers and loyal inner circle have worked hard to disguise his deteriorating health and mental capabilities and confirmed the suspicions of many Americans that the outgoing lame-duck president is not now, and likely never was, fit to fulfill the duties of the presidency.