Today marks one year since Pres. Joe Biden took office. While Biden says he does not care about approval ratings, his poll numbers are dropping. A new Gallup poll finds 40% of U.S. adults approving of the job he is doing, his lowest to date, and second lowest in 30 years. He expressed in a press briefing held a day before he is proud of his record and what his administration has accomplished facing a "menu" of crises.
Meanwhile his party has failed to secure voting rights reform, a blow that critics warn will have an adverse affect on the mid-term elections. As the leader of the majority leader the president is expected to have more control or influence over political outcomes.
Biden ended his first year in office with a press conference, which was an anwer to month of pleading from the White House Correspondents Association. He still has not done a daily briefing in the space designated for it, the James Brady Press Briefing Room. But demonstrating stamina, Mr. Biden stood for questions from reporters for nearly two hours on Wednesday.
After an introductory speech for over 10 minutes where he addressed the affect of Omicron on the economy, the president called on reporters by name and answered a range of questions on the domestic and foreign front. Some of the reporters in the room were given face time with the president for the first time, giving America a glimpse of who works at the White House beyond the first few rows of the Brady Press Briefing room. Questions about the Russia/Ukraine conflict and the Coronavirus response elicited the most follow-ups.
Biden seemed resigned to give up on voting rights for now, blaming uncooperative Republicans as if he had little hope left. However, he appears to have a path forward on BBB. He linked the issues with inflations and economy to the pandemic, which he thinks will get under control over time.
The Slice has pulled together a range of questions that were the highlights of the press conference. Answers have been edited to get to the point faster.
PRES. JOE BIDEN'S FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE OF 2022 HIGHLIGHTS
ON HIS OPTIMISM DESPITE ON-GOING CHALLENGES
The AP kicked of the questions asking about Biden's optimism despite clear setbacks that was framed in a manner that suggested Biden has compromised on his campaign promises.
"Q: I wanted to zoom out on your first year in office.
Inflation is up. Your signature domestic legislation is stalled in Congress. In a few hours from now, the Senate -- an effort in the Senate to deal with voting rights and voting -- voting reform legislation is going to fail. COVID-19 is taking the lives of 1,500 Americans every day. And the nation’s divisions are just as raw as they were a year ago. Did you overpromise to the American public what you could achieve in your first year in office? And how do you plan to course-correct going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Why are you such an optimist? (Laughter.)
Look, I didn’t overpromise, but I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen. The fact of the matter is that we’re in a situation where we have made enormous progress. You mentioned the number of deaths from COVID; well, it was three times that not long ago. It’s coming down. Everything is changing. It’s getting better.
Look, I didn’t overpromise, but I think if you take a look at what we’ve been able to do, you’d have to acknowledge we made enormous progress."
ON RUSSIA INVADING UKRAINE
Pres. Biden presumed Russia would invade Ukraine.
Q: If the U.S. and NATO aren't willing to put troops on the line to defend Ukraine and American allies can’t agree on a sanctions package, hasn't the U.S. and the West lost nearly all of its leverage over Vladimir Putin?
THE PRESIDENT. . .if they actually do what they're capable of doing with the forces amassed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further ingra- -- invade Ukraine, and that our allies and partners are ready to impose severe costs and significant harm on Russia and the Russian economy.
ON PASSING BBB
Q: So, is there anything that you are confident you can get signed into law before the midterm elections?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I’m confident we can get pieces -- big chunks of the Build Back Better law signed into law.
And I'm confident that we can take the case to the American people that the people they should be voting for -- who are going to oversee whether your elections, in fact, are legit or not -- should not be those who are being put up by the Republicans to det- -- to determine that they're going to be able to change the outcome of the election.
ON THE STATUS OF THE PANDEMIC
"Should we have done more testing earlier? Yes," he said. "But we're doing more now ... We've gone from zero at-home tests a year ago to 375 million tests on the market in just this month."
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