Joe Biden looked like he had a lot to say. Just over an hour into the second press conference of his presidency and the first since his approval ratings plummeted this fall, Biden stopped referring to his seating chart printed with reporters’ faces and names and started calling on anyone shouting questions. “How long are you guys ready to go?” Biden asked. “You want to go for another hour?”
For 111 minutes, Biden stood at the lectern under the crystal chandeliers of the White House East Room and defiantly touted his Administration’s accomplishments during a low moment in his presidency. Biden could have set a new tone, charted a new direction for his second-year, after months of negative news regarding another rise in COVID-19 infection, skyrocketing costs, and the fallout from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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Instead, Biden doubled down. One day before the anniversary of his inauguration, Biden defended the record of his first year in office, pointing out that he pushed COVID-19 relief funding into American bank accounts, rolled out vaccines to 200 million Americans, saw record employment gains and passed a bipartisan, trillion-dollar investment in America’s infrastructure. On Afghanistan, Biden said he makes “no apologies” for his decision to withdraw, despite the country falling into the hands of the Taliban and the humanitarian disaster unfolding now.
“I didn’t over promise,” Biden declared about his first year in office. “And I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen.”
At the day of the press conference, Biden’s approval rating was just 41.9%, according to a polling average tracked by FiveThirtyEight. However, the President attributed his low approval rating and other issues like the supply chain problems to the effects of the lingering influenza pandemic. “I know there’s a lot of frustration and fatigue in this country,” he said. “And we know why: COVID-19.”
Biden admits to making mistakes when it comes to fighting the virus. Biden acknowledged that he could have increased COVID-19 testing before the January announcement by his Administration, which said it would make a billion of them available to the public. “Should we have done more testing earlier? Yes. But we’re doing more now,” Biden said. Biden has been criticised for too many of his COVID-19 strategies focusing on vaccines, and not enough resources on making high-quality masks more affordable and widely accessible. But he said he’s going to stick with his Administration’s emphasis on vaccinations “because vaccinations work.” Being vaccinated and boosted greatly reduces the likelihood of dying or being hospitalized if infected with COVID-19.
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Biden’s views on legislation were in stark contrast to the Republicans of Congress. He described them as obstructionists and those who don’t stand for anything. “One thing I haven’t been able to do is get my Republican friends to get in the game to make things better,” he said. “I did not anticipate that there’d be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that President Biden didn’t get anything done.” He blamed a Republican blockade for stymieing him in Congress, despite the fact that the Build Back Better Bill—a cornerstone of his economic agenda—and voting rights bills have been held up by opposition from his own party.
Biden was speaking as the Senate was on track to reject the voting rights bills that he supported. One of the main obstacles to his agenda, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, stood on the Senate floor during Biden’s press conference and he wouldn’t cave to Democrats’ scramble to change Senate rules to pass voting rights bills with 51 votes, instead of 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Manchin, a Democrat, also torpedoed the Build Back Better bill at the end of 2021, and Biden vowed at his presser to try to carve the package into “big chunks” to pass with Manchin’s support in 2022, including measures on climate change and access to early childhood education.
It is possible that he doesn’t have the time. A evenly divided Senate combined with a small Democratic majority in Congress could result in a flipped control of Congress in November. Biden stated that he will be leaving Washington in the second year to seek out more advice from outsiders and get on the road campaigning for Democrats. He said he planned to be “deeply involved” in midterm congressional races and to be “raising a lot of money” to try to prevent Democrats losing their hold on Congress.
The White House had to clarify some of Biden’s comments from the press conference Wednesday evening, after he implied that the U.S. response if Russia invades Ukraine might be less significant if it’s a “minor incursion.” Biden said: “I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not to do.” Afterwards, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki released a statement saying, “President Biden has been clear with the Russian President: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our Allies.”
This was Biden’s first formal White House press conference. March 25. Biden’s total number of news conferences in his first year of being president was lower than that of any other modern president, since Ronald Reagan. This is according to an American Presidency Project statistic at the University of California Santa Barbara. He’s granted fewer sit down interviews while in office than any recent president.
Biden implored viewers to look at his record “on balance.” “WWhat is the current trajectory of this country? Is it moving in the right direction now?” Biden asked. “I don’t know how we can say it’s not.” The question facing his party is whether voters agree.
