But due to the pandemic, the White House limited attendance and only 30 socially distanced chairs for journalists were spread out in the expansive room. The president still stood behind a podium against a backdrop of flags. The scene looked very different from what Americans are used to seeing for formal presidential news conferences.

supply of vaccines is on track to increase and states lift eligibility requirements to get shots. Over the next month, two of the bottlenecks to getting Americans vaccinated are set to ease as the U.S. is now averaging about 2.5 million doses per day and an even greater rate is possible. While seemingly ambitious, Biden’s vaccine goal amounts to a continuation of the existing pace of vaccinations through the end of next month. WATCH: Biden tasks Harris with diplomatic efforts to stem migration amid growing border influx The administration had met Biden’s initial goal of 100 million doses earlier this month - before even his 60th day in office - as the president pushes to defeat a pandemic that has killed more than 545,000 Americans and devastated the nation’s economy.īut while Biden had held off on holding his first news conference so he could use it to celebrate progress against the pandemic and passage of a giant COVID-19 relief package, he was quickly pressed about all sorts of other challenges that have cropped up along the way. “I am going to deal with all of those problems,” Biden pledged.īiden opened his first formal news conference by doubling his original goal on COVID-19 vaccines by pledging that the nation will administer 200 million doses by the end of his first 100 days in office. “I am going to say something outrageous: I have never been particularly poor at calculating getting things done in the United States Senate.”Ī pair of mass shootings, rising international tensions, early signs of intraparty divisions and increasing numbers of migrants crossing the southern border are all confronting the young Biden administration, which is also navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic devastation. I want to get them done consistent with what we promised the American people,” said Biden, who spent decades in the Senate. “If there’s complete lockdown and chaos, as a consequence of the filibuster, then we’re going to have to go beyond what I’m talking about,” he said. But he then suggested, at least on certain issues, he would go further.

The 78-year-old president also, for the first time, said his “plan is to run for reelection, that is my expectation.”īiden at first backed a modification - but not elimination - of the filibuster. Watch the news conference in the video player above. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden at his first news conference Thursday left the door open to pushing for fundamental changes in Senate procedures to muscle key elements of his agenda such as immigration and voting rights past firm Republican opposition “if there’s complete lockdown and chaos.”

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