Joe Biden Press Conference Addresses Problems Facing United States

At his first press conference since being in office, President Joe Biden said that he was hired to solve problems and that he plans to prioritize administering 200 million COVID-19 vaccines in his first 100 days.

On his 68^th day in office, Biden discussed his plans for a new COVID-19 vaccination goal, for immigration and issues at the border, for foreign relations with China, Afghanistan and North Korea, gun control, voting rights and the Senate filibuster at the press conference.

Biden said the “most urgent problem” facing the United States was COVID-19 and the economic impact from COVID-19. He said his new goal for his first one-hundred days in office is to administer 200 million COVID-19 vaccines, double his original goal, which he hit on day 58.

“I know it’s an ambitious goal, twice our original goal, but no other country in the world has come even close, not even close, to what we’ve been doing,” he said.

Looking to the 2024 election, Biden said he expects to run for re-election but does not officially plan to, saying he has become a “great respecter of fate.”

In regard to immigration and the unaccompanied children at the southern border, Biden said within the week he plans to get 1,000 people out of border patrol facilities and into “safe and secure beds and facilities” as soon as possible, saying no one should be in a border patrol facility longer than 72 hours. On March 24, he asked Vice President Kamala Harris to head efforts on finding out why immigrants are leaving their countries in the first place, noting hurricanes and lack of food as possible reasons. Biden said his administration will work to fix the problems that are causing people to migrate to the U.S.

“We’re gonna do a lot in our administration,” he said. “We’re gonna be spending that $700 plus million a year to change the life and circumstances of the why people leave in the first place.”

He also said that his administration set up a system on March 25 that ensures unaccompanied children at the border will have their contacts called within 48 hours. The system will ensure that the phone numbers called are verifiably the kid’s parent or relative and not a trafficker. From there, the children will be sent directly to their relative and a hearing date will be set, according to Biden. He noted that 70% of the children at the border are 16 or 17 years old and are mostly males.

“I can’t guarantee we’re gonna solve everything, but I can guarantee we can make everything better,” he said about the immigration issues.

Biden said that his plans for gun control are “a matter of timing.” He said he does plan to send the manufacturer liability bill and sign executive actions like going after ghost guns, but he is focusing on other priorities, like immigration and COVID-19, first.

“As you’ve all observed, successful presidents, better than me, have been successful in a large part because they know how to time what they’re doing,” he said.

Biden also said that he is worried about how “un-American” the recent laws restricting voting access are. He said he plans to figure out how to pass the legislation passed by the House and educate the American public to address these initiatives.

“It’s sick. Deciding in some states that you cannot bring water to people standing in line to vote. Deciding that you’re gonna end voting at five o’clock when working people are just getting off work. Deciding that there will be no absentee ballots except under the most rigid circumstances. It’s all design,” he said, adding that it makes “Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”

On the United States’ relationship with China, Biden said that the U.S. is not looking for confrontation, but he knows there will be competition. He said with that competition, the U.S. expects China to play by the International rules. “Fair competition. Fair practice. Fair trade,” he said. He also said he plans to invest in American workers and American science to move the U.S. forward in that competition with China, as well as reestablish our alliances and focus on American values.

“China has an overall goal, and I don’t criticize them for the goal, but they have an overall goal to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world and the most powerful country in the world. That’s not gonna happen on my watch because the United States is gonna continue to grow and expand,” Biden said.

About the filibuster in the Senate, Biden said it is “being abused in a gigantic way,” saying that it is a relic of the Jim Crow era that is keeping them from getting things done.

“It’s been abused from the time it came to be, by and extreme way in the last 20 years,” he said. “Let’s deal with that abuse first.”

Biden also discussed his hopes to rebuild the infrastructure in the U.S., saying it would not only make Americans healthier but also create more jobs. He also said the U.S. is in conversations with U.S. allies and partners in regard to the North Korea ballistic missiles, as well as the Afghanistan conflicts, noting “it will be hard to meet the May 1 deadline” for removing troops from the country.

“I set a goal that’s in front of me to get things done for the people I care most about, which are hard-working, decent American people,” he said. “For me it’s about just getting out there, putting one foot in front of the other and just trying to make things better for people, just hard-working people.”