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6 Takeaways From Biden’s First Press Conference

Posted on Friday, March 26, 2021
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by Outside Contributor
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President Joe Biden on Thursday spoke of going to the Senate “120 years ago,” claimed nothing has changed on the border regarding illegal immigration, and outlined more ambitious goals for COVID-19 vaccinations and the reopening of schools.

On Day 65 of his presidency, Biden held his first press conference, fielding questions from 10 reporters in a formal question-and-answer session that lasted just over an hour.

In some cases, reporters pressed Biden, particularly on issues pertaining to the immigration crisis at the border. Other reporters, however, seemed to echo Democratic talking points in accusing Republicans of pursuing “voter suppression,” while another characterized Biden as being “decent and moral.”

1) Go Back to Filibuster of ‘120 Years Ago’

Biden hinted that he was open to abolishing the Senate filibuster, but preferred to return to an old-fashioned filibuster that required a senator to hold the floor and talk at length.

“We should go back to a position with the filibuster that existed when I came to the United States Senate 120 years ago,” Biden said. It wasn’t clear whether that was intended as a self-deprecating joke about his long tenure in Washington, since he didn’t smile or laugh.

Biden then seemed to fumble for words and statistics.

“I had a card on it, so I was going to give you the statistics, but you probably know them,” Biden said. “That used to be that, uh, well, that between 1917 and 1971, the filibuster existed, there were a total of 58 motions to break a filibuster that whole time.”

The president noted that the filibuster was particularly abused in the Senate during the last year, when his fellow Democrats were in the minority. Generally, only the minority party uses the filibuster.

“Last year alone, there were five times that many. So, it’s being abused in a gigantic way,” Biden said. “For example, it used to be, you had to stand there and talk and talk and talk until you collapsed.

Guess what? People got tired of talking and tired of collapsing. Filibusters broke down. We were able to break the filibuster, and get a quorum and vote.

Biden added that he essentially needs to get 50 votes for Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the tie-breaking vote in the 100-member Senate, or to get 51 votes without her.

He seemed to verbally stumble again when making that point.

“I have never been particularly poor at calculating how to get things done in the United States Senate,” Biden said. “So, the best way to get something done if you hold it near and dear to you that—uh, like to be able to, uh, anyway—we’re ready to get a lot done.”

He added, “If we have to, if there is complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster, then we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins subsequently asked, “President Barack Obama said he believed the filibuster was a relic of the Jim Crow era. Do you agree?”

Biden answered, “Yes.”

She followed up: “Why not abolish it if it’s a relic of the Jim Crow era?”

Biden said: “Successful electoral politics is the art of the possible. Let’s figure out how we can get this done and move in the direction of significantly changing the abuse of the filibuster rule first.

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

2) ‘Moral, Decent’ Biden: ‘Nothing Has Changed’ on Border

PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor asked Biden, “The perception of you that got you elected as a moral, decent man is the reason that a lot of immigrants are coming to this country and trusting you with unaccompanied minors.

“How do you resolve that tension, and how are you choosing which families can stay and which can go?

Biden dismissed the notion that immigrants are crossing the border because he’s perceived by them as more welcoming than former President Donald Trump.

“I guess I should be flattered people are coming because I’m the nice guy. That’s the reason why it’s happening is that I’m a decent man, or however it’s phrased,” Biden said. “That’s why they’re coming, because Biden is a good guy. The truth of the matter is, nothing has changed.”

He continued:

As many people came, 28% increase at the border in my administration; 31% in the last year, 2019, before the [coronavirus] pandemic in the Trump administration.

It happens every single, solitary year. There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March. It happens every year.

3) Transparency at the Border

Biden waited longer than any other president in about 100 years to hold his first formal news conference.

His administration has also limited media access to the southern border detention centers.

NBC’s Kristen Welker pressed Biden on when journalists would have access to illegal-immigrant detention facilities on the border for unaccompanied minors, which the Biden administration has mostly denied.

Biden said, “I will commit to transparency as soon as I’m in a position to be able to implement what we are doing.”

Welker followed up: “Just to be clear: How soon will that be, Mr. President?”

Biden answered, somewhat tersely, “I don’t know, to be clear.”

Welker later pressed Biden, asking: “Do you bear responsibility for everything that is happening at the border now? I hear you talking about the past administration. You decided to roll back some of those policies. Did you move too quickly?”

Biden said Trump’s policies didn’t work and refused to apologize for his executive orders that changed them.

“Rolling back the policy of separating children from their mothers, I make no apology for that,” Biden said. “Rolling back the policy of ‘remain in Mexico,’ sitting on the edge of the Rio Grande in a muddy circumstance, with nothing to eat, I make no apology for that. I make no apologies for ending programs that did not exist before Trump became president.”

4) 200 Million Vaccines in First 100 Days

Biden promoted more ambitious goals as the United States climbs out of the COVID-19 crisis, pledging to double the original goal for vaccines and to open most schools.

“On December 8th, I indicated I hoped to get 100 million shots in people’s arms in my first 100 days. We met that goal last week, by Day 58—42 days ahead of schedule. Now, today, I’m setting a second goal,” Biden said. “That is, we will, by my 100th day in office, have administered 200 million shots in people’s arms. That’s right, 200 million shots in 100 days.”

About 1 million people were getting vaccines a day across the country before Biden took office, so the original goal was modest.

“I know it’s ambitious, twice our goal, but no other country in the world has even come close,” Biden said. “Not even close to what we are doing. I believe we can do it.”

5) Reopening Majority of Schools in 35 Days

Biden said he expects a majority of schools to reopen in the next 35 days, before the end of his first 100 days in office, though he said fewer than half are open now.

“I also set a goal before I took office of getting a majority of schools in K-8 fully opened in the first 100 days. Now, thanks to the enormous work done by our administration, educators, parents, local and state education officials, and leaders, a recent Department of Education survey shows that nearly half of the K-8 schools are open now full time, five days a week for in-person learning,” Biden said. “Not yet a majority, but we are really close. I believe in the 35 days left, we’ll meet that goal as well.”

6) China’s Xi Is ‘Smart, Smart Guy’

Biden was asked whether he would consider maintaining tariffs on China and ban imports of goods made there with forced labor. Biden wasn’t clear on specifics, but laid out his goals for relations with China.

He called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “smart, smart guy,” but said he “doesn’t have a democratic—small ‘d’—bone in his body.”

He said he and Xi spoke for two hours after Biden’s election.

“I’ve known Xi Jinping for a long time. Allegedly, by the time I left office as vice president, I had spent more time with Xi Jinping than any [other] world leader had,” Biden said.

He said the United States is “not looking for confrontation” with China, but it would be a strong competitor. He added, “We’ll insist that China play by the essential international rules: fair competition, fair practices, fair trade.”

Further, Biden said, the United States will establish global alliances to hold China accountable.

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

Biden took another shot at Trump, portraying his predecessor as weak when it came to dealing with China’s persecution of its ethnic minority Uighurs, and aggressive actions suppressing democracy in Hong Kong.

“I made it clear that no American president—at least one did—but no American president ever backed down from speaking out on what’s happening with the Uighurs, what’s happening in Hong Kong,” Biden said. “That’s who we are. The moment a president walks away from that, as the last one did, is the moment we begin to lose our legitimacy around the world. It’s who we are.”

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JOHN
JOHN
3 years ago

Does anyone see the co-relation of this administration and the founding of the NSDAP? (The National Socialist Democrat Workers Party) Hitler won election to the Chancellery by only ONE vote….. But beyond that ELECTIONS were OVER! Learn from HISTORY do not erase it!

JOHN
JOHN
3 years ago

It has become even more apparent why O’bummer kept him as a comic relief. Doe anyone see his definitive resemblance to the “Great OZ in The Wizard of Oz? Saying, “Pay No attention to the man behind the screen?” Shouldn’t someone drop a house on the “Wicked Witch of the West? {Kamilla) or The Wicked Witch of the East (Nancy)? But, I digress, this has all the ear-marks of a true horror story! The wanton destruction of what was and should be a beacon of Freedom and Liberty founded by virtuous, principled dedicated leaders! I am sad for Our America!

Honey
Honey
3 years ago

You missed the biggest news of the whole event.

Biden is probably going to run for reelection, he told us, and since Harris is doing such a great job, he’s going to keep her on the ticket.

Doesn’t everyone feel better now?

(Where is that cackling laugh coming from?)

Wanda
Wanda
3 years ago

He spent more time in China to collect bribes and pay offs through his drug addicted son, Hunter.

Richard
Richard
3 years ago

The presser concluded with a strange and awkward walk off by Biden as though he had an implant and was being summoned by a handler.

Nancy Warner
Nancy Warner
3 years ago

I think, along with some of the comments below, the hate for POTUS Trump stems from the interruption of the Communist Plan (1963), put into Congressional Records on January 10th, 1963, with 45, goals from the book The Naked Communist and most of those goals have been completed by Demwits and RINO’S. This Record has VP Johnson’s name on the document and some speculation is that this document, that Kennedy didn’t agree with, is why he was assassinated with Johnson/Castro take down.
I found the TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLE The end of January this year entitle SHADOW GOVERNMENT very telling and totally believable on how POTUS TRUMP was taken out of office.

Martin
Martin
3 years ago

It is not only the leftwing news media that is the enemy of the American People is the Socialist Democratic Party. If they are not stopped voting them out in 2022 will too late to save America.

Duane
Duane
3 years ago

Biden should not be in office. The same people that fought Trump for over 4 years. Gave us the Russian pee pee HOAX. Spied on American Citizens, STOLE this election. It was a nationwide/worldwide hate for Trump organized by the good old boy left deep state elite. A pre-planned subliminal cabal that put Biden in office. WE SHOULD ALL BE PUTTING PRESSURE ON OUR STATE LEGISLATURES TO CLEAN UP THE ELECTION PROCESS.

Kell R Kilhoffer
Kell R Kilhoffer
3 years ago

The left was determined to take power in this last election. Now that they have it their absolutely lost, leaderless and stuck with cleaning up a mess . They will continue to lie and deceive— it’s all they know.

DMM
DMM
3 years ago

You can’t fix stupid.

Steven W Sosnowski
Steven W Sosnowski
3 years ago

An honest assessment of Bidens lack of focus would have been better

Jude
Jude
3 years ago

If his news conference doesn’t tell all of us people what Biden is all about, the poor demented soul, then we all need our heads examined! He is not mentally fit to be president of this great country, and his “laughing hyena” VP is dumber than a hoe handle! I think it’s pretty clear how she got to where she is today! It’s truly scary to think about both of them at the “lead” of our government!

Kim
Kim
3 years ago

Oh my gosh, where do I begin? I did not hear the entire “press conference”, and I look forward to doing so.

What a pathetic and laughable attempt to try to sound presidential in front of a hand-picked bunch of sycophants. But even they had a hard time trying to make him look good. It appears that answers to the questions had been written down for him, as he nervously flipped through his papers. Deer-in-headlights pauses, fumbling for words, no impromptu thoughts (except for those one-liners he had already committed to memory), walking away from the microphone, even a couple of bouts of breathlessness…I do feel sorry for him. It’s no wonder we waited so long to hear from him, but the responsibility of being president is way above his pay grade.

I’m sorry; I don’t mean to be cruel, but he clearly is not equipped for this. But we knew that. He will sequester the economy into the ground (like carbon), and anger not-so-friendly foreign leaders to the point where they will challenge us.

“Instead of giving money to the corrupt states, I put up streetlights”, or something like that. He’s going to increase the GDP by 6%. Trump’s border policies did not slow the immigration. “Republican voters agree with what I’m saying” about Mitch McConnell and bipartisanship. Democracy vs. autocracy (okay, he learned a new word).

Nothing made much sense. But I didn’t think it would.

An older blonde women laughing in the kitchen with a grey haired man.
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