Biden Holds First News Conference

In his first news conference since taking office, Joe Biden announced his new goal for COVID-19 vaccinations in his first 100 days will be increased to 200 million and that other problems such as immigration are long-term problems that are being put under COVID in importance. The news conference happened on March 25, 2021 at the White House.

“I got elected to solve problems, and the most urgent problem facing the American people is COVID-19 and the economic dislocation for millions and millions of Americans,” said Biden.

Joe Biden’s original goal was to have 100 million shots in people’s arms in his first 100 days, but according to Biden, that goal was met last week on day 58. In the press conference, Biden set his new goal to have 200 million shots by 100 days, leaving him 42 days to accomplish this goal.

“I know it is ambitious, twice our original goal, but no other country in the world has even come close to what we are doing,” said Biden.

He also announced they invested $10 billion in reaching the hardest hit and most vulnerable communities.

His other goal in the first 100 days was to have the majority of K through 8 schools fully open, according to Biden at this point nearly half of these K through 8 schools are open 5 days a week.

When questioned about the other promises Biden ran on during his candidacy, Biden replied that he put all his focus on COVID 19 because it is the most urgent problem right now. According to Biden, gun control, immigration reform, climate change and voting rights are long-term problems, that he plans to begin working on one at a time after COVID-19 is under control.

“The fundamental problem is getting people some peace of mind so they can go to bed at night, and not stare at the ceilling wondering if they lost their health insurance or whether they are going to lose a family member,” said Biden.

Biden also announced that his expectation is to run for reelection in 2024 and expects Kamala Harris to be on the ticket with him. Unlike Trump who already had a reelection campaign set up at this point in his presidency. According to Biden, it is just a plan, and nothing has been put into effect yet.

“What I know I have is electoral support from republican voters, republican voters agree with what I am doing,” said Biden.

Immigration was brought up many times throughout the hour-long conference, along with the filibuster, the plan for American Troops in Afghanistan and voter rights.

Biden talked about how they plan to send many immigrants back to Mexico and to improve the conditions in bigger cities, so people don’t feel the need to leave. According to Biden, one of the problems is Mexico refusing to take some families back.

“They should all be going back, the only people we are not going to let sitting there by themselves with no help are children,” said Biden.

According to Biden, there are two ways to reduce child population in places like the border patrol stations: get them to the place where they have a relative or put them in a health and human service facility.

“For example, federal resources like Fort Bliss to get them safely in a place where they can be taken care of while their fate is determined,” said Biden.

Biden said he will commit to transparency about immigration facilities.

Biden talked about how as a vice president he helped Honduras lower gang violence by working with them to get lighting in the streets. According to Biden, they didn’t give money to the head of state but rather hired their own contractors to install the streetlights.

Another issue brought up was Filibusters. According to Biden, he plans on discussing the abuse of the filibuster rather than getting rid of it right away.

“It’s been abused by the time it came into being in an extreme way in the last 20 years,” said Biden. “Let’s deal with the abuse first.”

Another issue brought up was the May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of American Troops from Afghanistan. In Biden’s candidacy, he said it is past time to end these forever wars. Biden’s response was it’s going to be hard to meet that May 1 deadline in terms of tactical reason.

“If we leave, we are going to do so in a safe and orderly way,” said Biden. “We’re in consultation with our allies and partners and how to proceed. We will leave, the question is when we will leave.”

When asked if we will still have troops there in a year, Biden said he can’t picture that being the case.

Voting Rights are also a problem that was brought up during his news conference.

“What I am worried about is how unamerican this whole initiative is,” said Biden. “It’s sick deciding you are going to end voting at 5 o’clock when working people are just getting off of work.”

Biden said he is going to spend his time working on three things: trying to figure out how to pass the legislation passed by the house and educating the American public. Biden failed to mention the third thing on his list.

“The Republican voters I know find this despicable,” said Biden. “I’m not talking about the officials; I’m talking about the voters.”

Biden ended the meeting by saying he is ready to work with any Republican who wants to help solve the problems and make the situations better.

You can watch the whole conference here: https://youtu.be/W3cGU4-zwMM