Joe Biden started his press conference in just 78 days with strong defenses of his first full year of office. Biden admitted that COVID tests should have been available for Americans more often and blamed high inflation on both the Federal Reserve and the pandemic.
‘I didn’t overpromise. What I have is outperformed what anybody thought would happen,’ Biden said at the event, which came one day ahead of his one-year annivesary in office.
His first remarks were about the number of people who had been vaccinated during his first year as an office president and his American Rescue Plan which, in his early years of presidency, provided $1.9 trillion worth COVID relief funds.
However, he acknowledged that Americans are frustrated by high prices, empty grocery stores and long COVID lines.
“Should we’ve done more testing before? Yes. Yes.
Joe Biden started his press conference (his first in 78 Days) with a defense of his first full year in office.
He admitted that the pandemic was not over.
“We are moving towards a day when covid-19 will not disrupt our everyday lives. The covid-19 crisis won’t become a serious threat, but an issue to be protected against. But we are not yet there. The president stated that we will reach our goal.
After recognizing the rising prices at both the grocery and gas pumps, he decided to pivot towards the economy.
He stated that it was the Federal Reserve’s responsibility to rebalance its policies and stressed the agency’s independence.
“I am often amazed at empty shelves shown on television. 89% of the shelves are empty. This is just a fraction of the level it was prior to the pandemic. He said, “Our work isn’t done.”
He reiterated his request for Senate approval of his Build Back better plan, which is his social safety net program that includes education, health care, and environmental programs.
He also acknowledged that his bill had to be divided in part to be passed.
He said, “It’s obvious to me that probably we will have to break it up”,
In December, the bill was killed in the Senate when Joe Manchin (moderate Democratic senator) announced that he would not be supporting it. He cited the increase in child tax credit and some environmental programs as well as its overall cost.
Biden requires every Democratic vote in the evenly divided Senate of 50-50. Some Democrats suggested cutting the bill in chunks to pass sections that were not yet agreed upon.
Wednesday was Biden’s first sign that the road forward was clear.
He stated, “I think that we can disassemble the package and get the most we can right now. Then, we’ll come back to fight later for the remaining stuff.”
Biden held his last press conference at the White House in March. His last official press conference took place in October while he was visiting Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26. Biden has also held press conferences alone on foreign trips, as well as joint ones with leaders around the world. He is open to answering questions on-the-spot. Biden, who has had six separate news conferences and three with foreign leaders in total, is far less than his predecessors at the Oval Office.
Jen Psaki (White House press secretary) began Tuesday’s defense of Biden’s inaugural year during a press conference. There, she addressed two key areas that make Biden most vulnerable: how he handled the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and the economy.
‘During the president’s first year, we saw the most dramatic change in our economy of anywhere in the world,’ she declared.
She also highlighted the progress in COVID.
‘If we look to a year ago, only 1% of adults were fully vaccinated; 74% of adults are fully vaccinated now. Talking about add-home test availability, we have already discussed the levels of vaccines available. There were no tests in place a year ago. We now have 375,000,000 tests being distributed each month. From 46% to 95% of schools, we now have more than 95%. This is progress that’s been made,’ she said.
But Biden’s record of accomplishment is mixed.
Some of the contrasts between his first few months in office and one-year later is startling: Biden’s early approval rating sat in the mid-to-high 50s but has tanked to the mid-30s as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage and the economy struggles to recover.
Americans now face empty shelves at grocery stores, record inflation rates and high costs for gas and food.
More tellingly, most Americans – 62% in the RealClearPolitics Average – thinks the country is on the wrong track.
Biden, at his first solo White House press conference on March 25, 2021
Joe Biden takes the oath to office with Jill Biden, Ashley, and Hunter at his side
In his first year as President, Joe Biden held far fewer press conferences than his predecessors.
Biden, 79, started his presidency in a flurry of optimism, portraying himself as being the ‘adult in room’ who would return America to its role as a leader on the global stage.
He arrived in Washington with more than $4 trillion worth of big ideas – including the biggest expansion of federal entitlements since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society’ – but found himself stymied by the Senate, including two of his own Democrats: Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
He is a politician who boasts being a dealmaker and man in the Senate. However, he struggles to get over the bitterness of Washington politics and the growing divide between his two parties.
He has not achieved unity with Republicans like he hoped for in his Jan 20th, 2021 inaugural address. The left-wing Democratic Party has expressed its dissatisfaction with him.
He did pass nearly $3 trillion in new federal spending – a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package known as the American Rescue Plan and a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal. He used his presidential pen to restore the United States to the Paris Climate Accord and stop work on Donald Trump’s border wall.
However, he was unable to prioritize other priorities, such as two years of community college free for all, expanding Obamacare and the child tax credit.
The progressive wing was also disappointed by the lack of progress in areas such as voting rights, gun control, and protections for abortion.
Here’s a breakdown of Biden’s campaign and early promises with where things stand now:
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Biden signed a promise to eliminate the COVID pandemic threat when he took office. He pushed an early victory celebration, coming six months into his tenure, when he hosted a ‘freedom from the virus’ party on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4th.
The Omicron variant has helped to increase the COVID cases rate by a record amount over the last few weeks.
Biden was successful in fighting the pandemic early on. Biden was able to administer 100 million COVID vaccines within 100 days of his election. However, the initial rush to inject the shots has dwindled to a trickle as the administration works to get every American vaccinated.
Minimum of 248,338,448 persons, or 76% of all people have had at least one dose.
Overall, 64% or 208.791,862 people have had their vaccines administered.
Biden marked ‘freedom form the virus’ by having a Fourth of July picnic at the White House. The president is seen above taking a photograph with the Washington Nationals’ mascots during this event
COVID has been a growing cause of death in America, and 1,839 Americans are now dying every day. In the United States, COVID-related deaths have increased 36% in just two weeks.
For the first time, the U.S. daily case average surpassed 800,000. This was achieved with four times more cases than the Delta peak at its height. The differences in cases have not led to more deaths. There were 1,839 Americans who died every day, which is the highest since October. This number was still well below the 3,200 daily deaths at the Delta surge’s peak.
Biden’s attempt to mandate vaccines has fallen short. His order that required companies employing more than 1000 people to undergo mandatory vaccines or testing was overturned by the Supreme Court.
They did not leave in place the vaccine requirement for healthcare workers.
ECONOMY/INFLATION
The inflation rate reached an all-time high of 7% in this month’s 40th anniversary.
U.S. retailers currently face roughly 12% stock shortages for food, beverage, cleaning supplies, and personal hygiene products. This is up from the normal 7 to 10%.
This problem can be even worse for food products where the out-of-stock level has reached 15%.
Biden’s economy handling is getting low marks from voters: A CBS/YouGov poll on Sunday showed that 65% of Americans don’t think the government has done enough to reduce inflation.
However, the White House claims that the economy is on the right track to recovery, and that inflation will drop over the next year.
Officials point out that Biden’s first year in office has seen 6.4 millions jobs created, which was the largest number ever. The unemployment rate at the time Biden was elected was 6.3%. The unemployment rate is currently at 3.9%. This is the lowest level since the pandemic.
Supermarkets are seeing empty shelves more often than ever as businesses struggle to transport product from their warehouses to supermarkets.
Meanwhile, a record number of people quit their jobs during Biden’s first year – with a record 4.5 million in November. This is because of the competitive job market and people wanting higher wages and better benefits, according to Biden’s administration.
Wages are up – the average hourly pay jumped 4.7% in December compared with a year ago.
The economy has about 3.6 millions fewer jobs today than in the pre-pandemic period.
Numerous businesses have difficulty filling positions, and many people are reluctant to return the workforce due to rising COVID numbers.
Voters are showing their frustration: A CNBC/Change Research poll this month show 60% said they disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
Voting Rights/RACIAL JUSTICE/POLICE CHANGE
Biden has made racial equality one of his callings as a president. He cites the violence in Charlottesville, Va., during 2017’s Unite the Right rally – and Donald Trump’s response to it – as the reason he ran for office.
On his first day in office, he signed an executive order to advance equity for all, ‘including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.’
But he’s struggled to turn that vision into legislative reality.
His massive voting rights package – which would make Election Day a holiday, adjust the redistricting process and crack down on money in politics – is stalled in the Senate. Biden has personally tried to lobby moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Silnema for support in killing the filibuster. But, so far their efforts have failed.
In November, demonstrators demanding voting rights demonstrated in front of White House
Biden visited Atlanta on Tuesday last week to address voting rights. However, many local civil rights activists protested against the inaction. Stacey Abrams, the voting rights activists who helped Biden win Georgia in 2020, wasn’t there due to a ‘conflict.’
Law reform for police has been also killed: Although the House approved the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in march, it was not supported enough by Republicans to pass the Senate. The talks finally ended in September.
Biden also reneged on a campaign promise not to establish a commission for national police oversight within his first hundred days.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Biden pulled the U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August. This effectively ended America’s longest conflict.
However, the withdrawal was marred by chaos at the end, especially after 13 soldiers were killed in a terrorist attack at Kabul’s airport.
Biden supported his decision and argued that the price would be higher had the United States remained in conflict.
‘I’m the fourth president who has faced the issue of whether and when to end this war. As a presidential candidate, I pledged to my voters that I would end the war. Today I’ve honored that commitment,’ he said in August.
Democrats and Republicans both criticized him for his handling of the crisis. They cited the rush to get people out of Afghanistan, their struggle to evacuate them all, and the fates of many Afghanis who volunteered to help the United States, but were left behind. Questions were raised about the fate of women in Afghanistan after Taliban control.
U.S. military plane takes off from Hamid Karzai Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday August 28th, 2021 as part of the American withdrawal
Last week, an army of Russian armored vehicles moved on a road in Crimea.
There is still no U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan – one of the major areas that has no formal American representative.
Biden also has not named an ambassador to the United Kingdom – one of America’s most important allies – nor to Ukraine, which is facing a potential invasion by Russia.
Psaki on Tuesday indicated the administration’s belief an attack on Ukraine was imminent. Tony Blinken, Secretary of State, flew to Kiev on Tuesday.
‘We’re now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine,’ she said.
The last ambassador to Ukraine was Marie Yovanovitch, who left in May 2019 and ultimately testified in Trump’s first impeachment trial.
Biden appointed 83 Ambassadors by January 10, 2022 according to American Foreign Service Association. This is compared with 190.
IMMIGRATION
Biden took some first steps in immigration policy, signing an executive order that halted funding for Trump’s wall at the southern border and one to repeal the U.S. ban on entry from predominantly Muslim countries.
On his first day of office, he presented the U.S. Citizenship Act, which was a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Citizenship Act of 2021 included an eight-year pathway to citizenship for approximately 11 million immigrants who are not documented in the U.S.
However, the Senate has not yet voted on the legislation and the bill is considered to be dead on Capitol Hill.
The President was criticised earlier in the year for telling the American public that he will keep the Trump-era cap on refugees allowed to enter the United States, despite promising to increase it. He eventually reversed course and raised the cap to 125,000 as promised by him during his presidential campaign.
To seek asylum in the United States, asyle-seeking migrants fleeing Haiti crossed Rio Bravo to surrender to U.S Border Patrol agents.
He upheld Title 42 however, which was a Trump-era policy relating to pandemics that mandated the expulsion of immigrants as a precautionary measure.
Biden put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of the root causes of migration, which was the administration’s attempt to staunch the number of migrants crossing the border. Harris is not a success in this role, and Republicans plan to make border policy the top topic in the midterm elections in 2022.
This assignment was made after thousands of people flocked to the border in the first months of Biden’s administration. Temporary shelters also overflowed with migrants.
In September, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1,733,652 incidents. This is the highest number of encounters in any fiscal year.
Many people were sent home to their countries by Title 42. Many more are still waiting to find out if their asylum applications will be granted.
CLIMATE
Biden won some quick victories in climate policy. Executive orders were signed by Biden that allowed the US to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. He also revoked Keystone’s XL permit.
But Biden pledged the US would slash its greenhouse gas emissions in half compared with 2005 levels by the end of this decade and it’s unclear how he will reach that goal. After Democratic Senator Joe Manchin opposed them, many of Biden’s most important environmental provisions were removed from his landmark $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social safety net program.
‘Obviously there’s more work that’s going to be done, that needs to be done,’ Psaki said on Tuesday. ‘The job is not done yet. However, we do have a plan in place to tackle the problems