WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden outlined his first-year achievements with his legislative agenda during a rare formal news conference on Wednesday Stalled, Hospital overwhelmed With Covid patients and the threat of Russian invasion of Ukraine emerging,
Biden highlighted the 200 million Americans who have been vaccinated, the efforts he made to keep schools and businesses open, and economic growth during his first year under this administration. But he acknowledged the dismay that many Americans say they feel about the direction the country is headed and blamed the pandemic for it.
“Still, for all this progress, I know there is a lot of despair and fatigue in this country, and we know why: COVID-19,” Biden said.
On November 2, Biden formally took questions from the full White House press corps at the news conference for the first time since a climate summit in Scotland.
Biden took questions from reporters with approval numbers that have been falling steadily since the summer, as Democrats on Capitol Hill struggle to find votes to pass their social spending bill and voting rights legislation — two measures he took to take office. I spent most of my first year trying to push through Congress.
They have also hit the one-year mark with a rise in Covid infections, with vaccinated and hospitalized critically ill unvaccinated patients. On the economy, unemployment numbers have declined, but inflation has reached its highest level in decades.
And on the foreign policy front, the White House has said it expects Russia to invade Ukraine at any point, with diplomatic talks and threats of sanctions so far failing to defuse tensions.
The White House has focused on promoting two legislative packages that Biden was able to get through Congress last year, the US rescue plan that provided COVID relief funds in the spring and a $500 billion infrastructure bill passed in the fall. Happened.
But the current environment is far from where the administration had said Be expected Hired to end Biden’s first year as it entered summer with declining Covid cases rising And the prospect of passing both the infrastructure bill and a larger $1.7 billion social spending measure.
Ahead of the news conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday highlighted areas the White House said represented Biden’s major achievements in his first year. She said the US economy has grown faster than other countries and fewer Americans are out of work, with initial unemployment claims rising to 210,000 from 812,000 a year ago. He also cited the work of the Biden administration to fully vaccinate 74 percent of adults and efforts to get the US to the point where it is conducting 375 million at-home COVID tests a month.
“It is progress that has been made. Obviously there is more work being done that needs to be done,” said Saki. “The work is not done yet. But we have a plan to address the challenges we are facing.”
Biden has held the fewest news conferences by a president in his first year in office since Ronald Reagan. According to a tally by the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Wednesday’s event was his seventh solo news conference he held three joint events with other world leaders.
While Biden takes sudden questions from reporters more often than some of his recent predecessors after events or when visiting or arriving at the White House, he spends less time than other presidents answering those questions and asking for follow-up questions. To provide short answers with few opportunities. , according to an analysis by Martha Kumar, director of the nonpartisan White House Transition Project.
Psaki said Biden has asked questions on about 250 occasions, with an average of three questions each time.
“I think the American people have seen him there answering questions. He will continue, it’s an important part of his engagement with the press and the public, and it will be a part of how we conduct ourselves.” Continue to do so,” Saki said last week.
Kelly O’Donnell Contribution,