Takeaways from Joe Biden’s press conference

It took three questions, but Biden admitted Thursday that he was prepared to consider reforming Senate filibustering in major ways – including going beyond simply reverting to so-called “permanent obstruction.”

“We’re going to have to go beyond what I’m talking about,” he concluded after a long response on his promises to the American people.

It was a step further than Biden was willing to go in the past, and reflects the growing recognition that most items on the president’s priority list – gun control, immigration, climate change – have little of chances to guarantee the passage in a uniform way. Senate divided.

Biden said he was willing to make larger changes to Senate rule on issues he called “elementary” of democracy, such as the right to vote, the subject on which he appeared to be. more passionate.

“I have no doubts that we can stop this, because it is the most pernicious thing,” Biden said of attempts by Republican state legislatures to impose new restrictions on voting. “It makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle. I mean, it’s gigantic, what they’re trying to do. And that can’t be sustained.”

Later, pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if he agreed with former President Barack Obama that filibuster was a holdover from Jim Crow, he said he did.

Biden had previously sought to strike a delicate balance by weighing in on things like filibustering, wary of Republicans alienation, or posing as a break with tradition.

But he seemed less preoccupied with these issues on Thursday, saying he was working for the American people and not some vague idea of ​​two-party politics. When asked about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who complained Wednesday that he had only spoken to Biden once since taking office, he shrugged: “I would expect to say exactly what he said. “

Pressed later on his re-election plans, he openly questioned whether the Republican Party would exist even in three and a half years.

Behind his back, a poll shows that many Republicans support his Covid-19 relief bill, which no Republican in Congress has supported. Biden acknowledged this fact and said it was more important to him that Republicans across the country support his agenda than Republicans on Capitol Hill.

“I couldn’t unite Congress, but I was able to unite the country, based on poll data,” he said.

Temperament

People who have worked alongside Biden often note that he has a temper that sometimes flares up when challenged, as well as a penchant for length. Both were on display Thursday.

He asked a reporter “is this a serious question?” pressed by conditions at border facilities and angered by questions about his political future.

“Look, I don’t know where you’re from, man,” he said.

Biden ultimately said he plans to run for re-election in 2024 – which he had not said before – but acknowledged that events could take place.

“I have a great acceptation of fate. I have never been able to plan four and a half, three and a half years in advance,” he said.

The question about his political plans made Biden’s age more prominent than it has been so far under his presidency, and at points in his press conference it was clear that the aged Biden 78 years old, relied on scripted talking points.

At other times he paused, abruptly ending responses when he seemed to meander.

“Am I giving you too long an answer?” he asked for a few minutes in a response on immigration. “Maybe I should stop there.”

Still, Biden demonstrated a solid understanding of the wide range of issues his presidency faced and seemed passionate about topics ranging from voting rights to infrastructure. It was also self-deprecating at times and seemed to genuinely respect the assembled press body, a clean break from its predecessor.

At times he has become defensive, especially when he has been pressed by his administration’s record to stem the influx of migrants to the southern border. His advisers don’t think occasional flashes of anger are a bad thing for Biden.

But his press conference was not marked by open hostility like that of President Donald Trump. Biden sarcastically mourned Trump’s absence.

“My predecessor,” he says. “Oh my God, I miss him.”

Covid-19 pandemic

Biden has focused relentlessly on tackling the coronavirus pandemic since coming to power. One of the reasons a press conference was postponed for so long, according to White House officials, was because Biden’s time was extremely concerned about the response.

Yet the press conference came at a time when other questions were swirling around. Biden entered the event hoping to bring attention back to his Covid-19 response by naming a new goal on vaccinations – 200 million in his first 100 days. And later, he sought to frame his entire first presidency around the pandemic response.

“When I took office I decided it was a pretty basic and straightforward proposition. I was elected to solve the problems, ”he said.

It turned out that his desire to reinsert his pandemic response into the conversation was justified; it did not arise in any of the questions asked by the journalists.

Later, it was evident that Biden’s next priority – an infrastructure package – was going to dominate his next legislative agenda. He was asked about gun control following two mass shootings that killed 18 people in the past week.

But he quickly recognized that was not where he was heading in Congress.

“Successful presidents, better than me, have been successful in large part because they know how to time what they’re doing,” he said, throwing in a long answer that ranged from improving water. drinking water to the elimination of asbestos through the construction of buildings. effective.

Foreign police

For a president whose “first love” is foreign policy, according to the assistants, the question was not central at the start of his presidency.

That looks set to change in the coming weeks as he must make decisions about withdrawing his troops from Afghanistan, punishing Russia for its role in a massive cyber attack, responding to North Korea’s provocations and developing a strategy. to face an emboldened China.

On Thursday, Biden provided new information on how he views his role on the world stage. He suggested focusing again on improving relations with American allies after four tumultuous years under Trump.

But he also recognized some areas in which he finds himself facing the same problems as his predecessor without a new approach.

He acknowledged that it would be “difficult” to meet the May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, but said he could not imagine troops there next year.

He said Wednesday’s ballistic missile tests in North Korea violated UN Security Council resolutions and promised a response if the situation worsens, but said – like Trump – that he was ready. to give diplomacy a chance if it were conditioned “on the end result of denuclearization.”

And although he declined to answer specific questions about Trump-era tariffs on China, saying they “touch only a small part of the reality of relations with China,” his administration left them in place for now, believing they provide leverage for the future. negotiations.

When asked if North Korea was still the main foreign policy issue he currently faces – which Obama warned Trump would be when he took office in 2016 – Biden said that this was the case.

“Yes,” he said, without giving further details.

Immigration

The most sustained line of questioning at Thursday’s press conference concerned the issue of immigration to the southern border, which the administration refused to call a “crisis.”

Biden also sought to downplay the number of migrants crossing the United States, saying it was a seasonal increase that matched previous years. He flatly rejected suggestions that more migrants were coming to the United States because of a set of rule changes he enacted that allow some unaccompanied minors to stay in the country.

He said he would never tell a migrant child arriving in the country with “we’re just going to starve him and stand on the other side.”

“No previous administration has done that either, except Trump,” he said. “I’m not going to do it.”

Basically, Biden’s argument is that the current immigration situation has been made worse by policies adopted under his predecessor, which he says made it more difficult to accommodate and treat migrant children.

He said that with more time to enact new policies and rebuild the treatment system, the current situation will be alleviated. And he claimed he had asked senior officials to step up the rate at which parents of migrant children are contacted to get them out of government shelters.

“It’s going to get a lot better very quickly or we’re going to hear people leave,” he said. “We can do it. We will do it.”