His first press conference was expected. Joe Biden focused on the fight against Covid-19 on Thursday March 25, announcing that he would double his vaccination target. He also said he plans to run for succession in 2024.
As the challenges mount, from immigration to firearms, the President of the United States has defended the record of his first two months. “I was elected to solve problems, not to create division”, said the septuagenarian Democrat, who for the first time complied with the formal exercise of exchanges with journalists, a little more than sixty days after coming to power.
“I said up front that the most pressing issues for the American people are Covid-19 and the economic crisis for millions and millions of Americans. This is why I concentrated at the beginning on these particular problems ”, he explained, praising his gigantic stimulus package of 1.9 trillion dollars.
While his initial goal of 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine administered during the first hundred days of his tenure was reached as early as 58e day, he revised his ambition upwards: “We will have carried out 200 million injections by my hundredth day in office”Joe Biden promised.
“I’m not going to apologize”
But the bulk of the press questions have centered on what Republicans and much of the media describe as a “Crisis” at the border with Mexico. And in particular on the fate of the 15,500 unaccompanied foreign minors, for whom the American authorities are responsible, including nearly 5,000 accommodated in premises which are not intended to accommodate children.
The 46e president of American history relativized the influx of migrants, believing that this “Happened every year”. “Every year, there is a significant increase in arrivals at the border in winter”, because migrants “Are less likely to die of heat in the desert”, he estimated, after having entrusted, Wednesday, to its vice-president, Kamala Harris, the management of this extremely sensitive file.
To the Republicans who accuse him of having encouraged a draft by relaxing the migration policy of his predecessor Donald Trump, he retorted dryly:
“I will not apologize for abolishing policies that violated international law and human dignity. “
Joe Biden, 78, waited much longer than his direct predecessors to participate in the potentially perilous press conference exercise, held in the prestigious East Room, with a limited number of reporters due to health restrictions.
Several crises have thwarted, in recent days, the plans of the White House, which intended to continue the Help is Here tour on the economic aid plan, adopted by Congress and very popular among the American population.
Two successive shootings, in massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia and then in a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, rocked America.
While Joe Biden has called on Congress to act, calling in particular for a ban on assault rifles, this footage has highlighted the Democrats’ limited room for maneuver on Capitol Hill where they have only narrow majorities. In front of the press, he called on Republicans on Thursday to work with Democrats rather than choose the “Division”.
Withdrawal from Afghanistan “difficult”
While he is often portrayed as the one-term president due to his age, he assured that he was planning to stand “Present” to his “Re-election” in 2024, still with Kamala Harris, the first woman to become vice-president, as running mate.
Pressed for questions on the subject, he then qualified his answer by affirming to respect ” destiny ” : “I have never been able to plan with certainty four and a half, three and a half years in advance”, he joked.
The president of the world’s leading power was also expected on the diplomatic front. Without announcing his final decision, he hinted that he would miss the deadline of 1er May for the withdrawal of all American forces from Afghanistan, negotiated by Donald Trump with the Taliban.
It will be ” difficult “ to keep, he warned. But “It is not my intention to stay there long”, he added, hinting that there would probably be no more American troops there next year.
To North Korea, which has just fired two ballistic missiles, he issued a warning: “There will be answers if they choose rock climbing. We will respond accordingly “, he warned. He said he was ready “To a certain form of diplomacy” with Pyongyang, “But subject to the condition of denuclearization”.
And he reaffirmed that he didn’t want to “Confrontation” with China, a week after a very muscular first exchange between his team and the heads of Chinese diplomacy.
