President Joe Biden fielded questions from reporters for nearly two hours at the White House on Wednesday — touching on a range of issues including coronavirus, tensions with Russia, and his own poll numbers — amid questions about his press access and transparency.
Wednesday marked his second press conference at the White House as president. He opened with a roughly 15-minute statement detailing his own assessment of the job the administration has done so far in office, but he repeatedly tried to walk away from the podium before being coached back by the shouting press corps to answer additional questions.
BIDEN SAYS HE ‘OUTPERFORMED’ PROMISES, BLAMES GOP FOR STALLED LEGISLATION
“How long are you guys ready to go? You want to go for another hour or two?” he joked during one such exchange. “I want to thank my communications staff for the great help here.”
In total, Biden called on more than 20 reporters throughout the nearly two-hour session and had key breakout moments while discussing the following issues.
Hope for his own agenda
By far the most broached topics were the president’s approval ratings and the likelihood that he can usher through another substantial legislative win for Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Despite the recent flood of negative polling, Biden remained adamant that the overwhelming majority of voters still support the vast majority of his agenda and said he was “confident” that he’d sign “big chunks” of his Build Back Better social spending bill into law by the end of the year.
He specifically said West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin was in favor of $400 billion to $500 billion in climate programs and further suggested that he was reaching across the aisle to Republican senators about stand-alone bills.
Still, Biden admitted that two parts of his agenda wouldn’t make the final legislation, including a permanent extension of the expanded child tax credit and providing free community college.
Omicron
Throughout both his opening remarks and a number of responses to questions, Biden reiterated that though the omicron variant of the coronavirus is shaping into a new “enemy,” greater access to vaccines, therapeutics, and tests will make the third year of the pandemic more “normal” than the past two.
“All I know is that after almost two years of physical, emotional, and psychological weight of this pandemic and the impact it’s had on everyone, for many of us, it’s been too much to bear,” the president said. “We’re in a very different place now. We have the tools — vaccines, boosters, mass test pills — to save lives and keep businesses and schools open.”
It’s worth noting that the president admitted that the White House “could have” been doing more to ship COVID-19 tests to individuals across the country earlier this winter, but he continued to urge people to get vaccinated and obtain booster shots.
“Some people may call what’s happening now a new normal. I call it a job not yet finished. It will get better. We’re moving toward a time when COVID-19 won’t disrupt our daily lives or COVID-19 won’t be a crisis,” he added.
Russia and Ukraine
The president’s comments regarding a Russian invasion of Ukraine required some immediate cleanup by the White House.
Biden harshly condemned Russia’s troop buildup and promised that it would be a “disaster” for Russia to launch an invasion. Still, he appeared to draw the line between a full-out invasion and a “minor incursion.”
“Russia will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends on what it does,” he explained. “It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having to fight about what to do and not do … but if they actually do what they’re capable of doing with the force they’ve amassed on the border, it’s going to be a disaster for Russia.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki released a statement clarifying Biden’s comments shortly after the press conference concluded.
“President Biden has been clear with the Russian President: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our allies,” she wrote. “President Biden also knows from long experience that the Russians have an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks and paramilitary tactics. And he affirmed today that those acts of Russian aggression will be met with a decisive, reciprocal, and united response.”
Who’s to blame?
Given the negative public sentiment and “confusion” regarding some of the White House’s recent decisions, Biden was forced to answer questions about potentially replacing some of his top administration officials, especially Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky.
The president defended the administration from perceived mistakes by claiming that over the past year, his team has continued to “learn more” about the pandemic and its economic fallout.
“The fact is that one piece that has gotten a lot of attention is the communications capacity of the CDC,” he stated. “[Walensky] came along and said, ‘Look, I’m not — I’m a scientist, and I’m learning. I’m learning how to deal with stating what is the case that we’ve observed.'”
“I think about it this way: how astounding it was within the time frame that it took to be able to come out with a vaccine,” Biden added. “Pretty amazing. It saved hundreds of thousands of lives.”
The president also shouldered the blame for part of his stalled agenda and threw some of that responsibility back on Republicans. Biden admitted to “underestimating” the unwillingness of the GOP to reach across the aisle and negotiate his legislative proposals in good faith.
Biden claimed that Republicans opposing the Obama administration “weren’t nearly as obstructionist as they are now.”
“What is their agenda? They had one back in the administration in the eight years when [Barack Obama and I were] president and vice president, but I don’t know what their agenda is now,” he continued. “There’s a difference between then and now.”
What will he change?
Biden did make one newsy announcement during the press conference.
“Yes,” he stated when asked if Vice President Kamala Harris would be included on his 2024 ticket, dashing months of speculation about Harris’s future relationship and implicit position as the Democratic Party’s successor.
“She’s going to be my running mate,” he continued, declining to expand on the topic. “I think she’s been doing a good job.”
Still, the president outlined three core areas he intends to do differently in his second year in office.
“Number one, I’m going to get out of this place more often. I’m going to go out and talk to the public. I’m going to do public forums. I’m going to interface with them and make the case as to what we’ve already done, why it’s important, and what will happen if they support what else I want to do,” Biden stated.
His second change will be “to go out there seeking more advice of experts from outside academia, to editorial writers, to think thanks” to “get their perspective on what we should be doing.”
The president said his third change will be getting “deeply involved in these off-year elections.”
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You can watch his entire press conference below.
