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Biden press conference today8/27/2023 Key Backgroundīiden has a long history of misstatements that have prompted criticism from his Republican foes and made him the butt of late-night television jokes. 70% of respondents said they do not want him to run again. That’s the percentage of Americans who cited Biden’s age in saying they do not believe he should seek a second term, according to a recent NBC News poll. “My buddy John McCain’s gone,” Biden admitted. He did not say he would expending his energies on wooing McConnell or other Republicans. “Based on some of the stuff we’ve got done, I’d say yes,” Biden said, “but it’s not nearly as unified as it should be.”Īs for the year-two relaunch that many feel is now required, Biden promised to get out and talk to the public more often, bring in more academics, editorial writers and thinktanks for expert advice, and get “deeply involved” in the midterm elections. One question, harking back to that inaugural address on a chilly day at the US Capitol, asked if the nation was less divided now than it was a year ago. Towards the end, he appeared to meander, drifting into talk about the cable news industry “heading south”. He caused a diplomatic kerfuffle by seeming to imply that a Russian “minor incursion” into Ukraine would not be such a big deal, forcing the White House to clean up and clarify. He insisted that his Build Back Better agenda was the best antidote to inflation but conceded it would have to be broken into “chunks” to get through Congress. Biden admitted that more coronavirus testing should have been done earlier. The president took question after question in a press conference that ran longer than any given by Obama or Trump. It was hardly “Morning in America” but it would have to do. Look, we’re not there yet, but we will get there.” “We’re moving toward a time when Covid-19 won’t disrupt our daily lives, where Covid-19 won’t be a crisis but something to protect against and a threat. “It will get better,” he insisted from a lectern on a rug spread out on the shiny wood floor. He fired off a barrage of statistics – more than 210 million Americans vaccinated, more than 6 million jobs created – that show him in a favourable light. “I didn’t over-promise but I have, probably, outperformed what anybody thought would happen,” he claimed. Wearing a dark blue suit with handkerchief in top left pocket, white shirt and yellow and blue striped tie, Biden naturally began with some chest-thumping about his record. Biden promised to unite the nation but has not even united his own party.īiden has restored civility to the White House – even at its weirdest moments or even when he snapped at reporters, this event had nothing on insult-hurling Trump – but has conducted the fewest press conferences in his first year as president since Ronald Reagan. Manchin and his fellow holdout Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, seem determined to upstage the Biden presidency at every turn. As a symbol of presidential impotence, the split screen was hard to beat. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was busy explaining his opposition to reform of the filibuster, a procedural rule that is standing in the way of the voting rights bills in an evenly divided Senate. This attempt to reframe the narrative by shining a light on Republicans instead of self-inflicted wounds was somewhat undercut because, at that very moment, a member of his own party was holding court in the Senate. “They weren’t nearly as obstructionist as they are now,” he insisted. He was asked if he should have expected this after eight years as Barack Obama’s vice-president, in which he witnessed the Republican party organising around the principle of “no”. “Did you ever think that one man out of office could intimidate an entire party where they’re unwilling to take any vote contrary to what he thinks should be taken for fear of being defeated in primary?” the president asked.īiden told the story of five Republican senators who privately told him they agreed with him but admitted: “Joe, if I do it, I’ll get defeated in a primary.” He turned the tables on reporters, asking if they thought we’d ever get to a point where not a single Republican would diverge on a major issue.īiden will be praised for speaking plainly about one of America’s two major parties having gone off the rails. Biden said Mitch McConnell ‘has one straightforward objective: make sure that there’s nothing I do that makes me look good’.
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