Biden Takes An Anniversary Victory Lap Without the Finish Line
“I’m not going to give up and accept things as they are now … some people call it a new normal. I call it a job not yet finished,” president says
President Biden marked an often-successful, but politically much more turbulent first year in the Oval Office with a formal White House press conference.
While certainly taking credit for the many successes his administration has forged this year, the president stopped well short of any sort of declaration of “mission accomplished.”
Biden was also combative during his Q&A with the press, particularly questioning congressional Republicans.
“I didn't overpromise ... I've probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen,” Biden said, responding to first question on whether he oversold his presidency during the campaign.
As if to back up that statement, the White House released a fact sheet touting a variety of Biden's accomplishments in his first year as president.
Some of those achievements include:
An historic vaccination program that resulted in more than 200 million Americans fully vaccinated this year, almost 75 percent of all adults.
Added 6.4 million jobs to the US economy – the most ever in one year – and managed the fastest growing economy in decades. Recent weekly unemployment claims are down near a level not seen since 1969.
And signed into law consequential legislation like the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — which the White House describes as the “most impactful legislative agenda for a first year President.”
Despite the administration's efforts to try to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, cases of the disease continue to spike to around levels never before seen.
“I’m not going to give up and accept things as they are now … some people call it a new normal. I call it a job not yet finished,” Biden conceded.
The president was even willing to admit past mistakes.
“Should we have done more testing earlier? Yes. But we’re doing more now,” he said.
Biden also said that the persistent supply chain problems which have plagued both US merchants and consumers didn't cause a problem for Christmas deliveries.
And he said goods in stock at stores are at 89 percent now, “which is barely changed from the 91 percent before the pandemic. I often see empty shelves being shown on television. 89 percent are full.”
Biden, however, pointedly took aim at Republicans, who have largely stood in obstruction to much of his domestic agenda.
“What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they're for,” the president said.
Meanwhile, apparently that sort of blanket obstruction doesn't sit well with even some Republicans, considering that it's a prime reason one prominent and popular GOP officeholder seems to have taken a pass on entreaties from his own party to challenge an incumbent Democratic senator this year.
Republicans tried, mightily, apparently, to try to encourage New Hampshire Gov Chris Sununu (R) to make a run for the seat held by Sen Maggie Hassan (D-NH).
Sununu, reportedly, was the only Granite State Republican with poll numbers high enough to make a serious challenge to Hassan.
Biden went so far Wednesday to read a Sununu quote regarding GOP opposition at his press conference.
Sununu reportedly was speaking with Republican senators who explained that their overall plan is simply to obstruct Biden until hopefully a Republican can defeat him in 2024.
“It bothered me that they were OK with that,” Sununu said.
The governor also asked Washington Republicans what they were going to do differently if they did win power, as they held through 2017 and 2018 during the first half of Donald Trump's term.
“Crickets. Yeah, crickets. They had no answer,” Sununu said of his fellow Republicans.
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