Remarks by President Biden in Press Conference

1:27 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Please, please sit down. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Before I take questions, I want to make — give you a progress report to the nation on where we stand 65 days into office here on vaccinations and a few other top priorities for the American people.

First, on vaccinations: On December 8th, I indicated that I hoped to get 100 million shots in people’s arms in my first 100 days. We met that goal last week by day 58 — 42 days ahead of schedule.

Now, today, I’m setting a second goal, and that is: We will, by my 100th day in office, have administered 200 million shots in people’s arms. That’s right: 200 million shots in 100 days.

I know it’s ambitious, twice our original goal, but no other country in the world has even come close — not even close — to what we are doing. And I believe we can do it.

And today, we’ve made a historic investment in reaching the hardest-hit and the most vulnerable communities, the highest-risk communities — as a consequence of the virus — by investing an addition $10 billion in being able to reach them.

I also set a goal, before I took office, of getting a majority of schools in K through 8 fully open in the first 100 days. Now, thanks to the enormous amount of work done by our administration, educators, parents, local, state education officials and leaders — a recent Department of Education Department survey shows that nearly half of the K-through-8 schools are open now full time, five days a week, for in-person learning. Not yet a majority, but we’re really close. And I believe, in the 35 days left to go, we’ll meet that goal as well.

As of yesterday, more than 100 million payments of $1,400 have gone into people’s bank accounts. That’s real money in people’s pockets, bringing relief instantly, almost. And millions more will be getting their money very soon.

One final note: Since we passed the American Rescue Plan, we’re starting to see new signs of hope in our economy. Since it was passed, a majority — a majority of economic forecasters have significantly increased their projections on the economic growth that’s going to take place this year. They’re now projecting it will exceed 6 percent — a 6 percent growth in GDP.

And just this morning, we learned that the number of people filing for weekly unemployment insurance fell by nearly 100,000 persons. That’s the first time in a year the number has fallen below the pre-pandemic high.

So there are still too many Americans out of work, too many families hurting, and we still have a lot of work to do.

But I can say to you, the American people: Help is here, and hope is on the way.

Now I’ll be happy to take your questions.

Zeke, the Associated Press.


 * Q Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned your progress on COVID-19. I’d like to ask you about some of the other issues facing your presidency. One of the defining challenges you face in the coming months is how to deliver on your promise to Americans on issues like immigration reform, gun control, voting rights, climate change. All of those right now are facing stiff, united opposition from Republicans on Capitol Hill. How far are you willing to go to achieve those promises that you made to the American people?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m going to — look, when I took office, I decided that it was a fairly basic, simple proposition, and that is: I got elected to solve problems. And the most urgent problem facing the American people, I stated from the outset, was COVID-19 and the economic dislocation for millions and millions of Americans. And so that’s why I put all my focus in the beginning — there are a lot of problems — put all my focus on dealing with those particular problems.


 * Q And just to — to follow up, Mr. President, can your presidency be a success if you can’t make progress on those four challenges&colon; climate change, immigration reform, gun control, voting rights?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, I plan on making progress on all of them, but that’s going to be for the American people to decide.


 * Q Thanks so much, Mr. President. You’ve said over and over again that immigrants shouldn’t come to this country right now; this isn’t the time to come. That message is not being received. Instead, the perception of you that got you elected — as a moral, decent man — is the reason why a lot of immigrants are coming to this country and entrusting you with unaccompanied minors.
 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, I guess I should be flattered people are coming because I’m the nice guy; that’s the reason why it’s happening — that I’m a decent man or however it’s phrased. That — you know, that’s why they’re coming, because they know Biden is a good guy.


 * Q (Inaudible.)
 * THE PRESIDENT: No, no, but I mean — I don’t know how much detail you want about immigration. Maybe I’ll stop there and fin- —


 * Q My follow-up question is&colon; One, if you could talk a little bit about which families — why they’re being allowed to stay. The families that are being allowed to stay, why they’re being allowed to stay.
 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, I’m going to deal with all of those problems. The question is, the priorities as they come and land on my plate.


 * Q And can you answer the filibuster (inaudible)?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Filibuster. Filibuster. You know, with regard to the filibuster, I believe we should go back to a position on the filibuster that existed just when I came to the United States Senate 120 years ago. And that is that — it used to be required for the filibuster — and I had a card on this; I was going to give you the statistics, but you probably know them — that it used to be that, that from between 1917 to 1971 — the filibuster existed — there was a total of 58 motions to break a filibuster that whole time. Last year alone, there were five times that many. So it’s being abused in a gigantic way.


 * Q Thank you, Mr. President, to follow up on the filibuster&colon; So do you believe it should take 60 votes to end a filibuster on legislation or 51?
 * THE PRESIDENT: (Laughs.) If we could end it with 51, we would have no problem. You’re going to have to — the existing rule — it’s going to be hard to get a parliamentary ruling that allows 50 votes to end the filibuster, the existence of a filibuster.


 * Q I’d like to circle back to immigration, please. You just listed the reasons that people are coming, talking about in-country problems, saying that it happens every year; you blamed the last administration. Sir, I just got back last night from a reporting trip to the border where I met nine-year-old, Yossell, who walked here from Honduras by himself, along with another little boy. He had that phone number on him —
 * THE PRESIDENT: Astounding.


 * Q — and we were able to call his family. His mother says that she sent her son to this country because she believes that you are not deporting unaccompanied minors like her son. That’s why she sent him alone from Honduras.
 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, the idea that I’m going to say — which I would never do — “if an unaccompanied child ends up at the border, we’re just going to let him starve to death and stay on the other side” — no previous administration did that either, except Trump. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it.


 * Q He’s — he’s nine. I also met a 10-year-old.
 * THE PRESIDENT: A nine-year-old. “I’m going to send him on a thousand-mile journey across the desert and up to the United States because I know Joe Biden is a nice guy and he’ll take care of him.”


 * Q A quick follow, if I may.  Do you want to see these unaccompanied minors staying in this country, or should they be deported eventually?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, the judgment has to be made whether or not — and in this young man’s case, he has a mom at home; there’s an overwhelming reason why he’d be put in a plane and flown back to his mom.


 * Q Final follow, sir. You mentioned circumstances that must be horrific. The Customs and Border Protection facility in Donna, Texas — I was there — is at 1,556 percent capacity —
 * THE PRESIDENT: Yep.


 * Q — right now, with mostly unaccompanied minors. There are kids that are sleeping on floors. They are packed into these pods. I’ve spoken to lawyers who say that they — some of these children have not seen the sun in days. What’s your reaction — what is your reaction to these images that have come out from that particular facility? Is what’s happening inside acceptable to you? And when is this going to be fixed?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Is — that’s a serious question, right?


 * Q Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask you about Afghanistan. You face a May 1st deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from that country. As a candidate, in foreign affairs, you wrote that it is past time to end these forever wars. Can you commit to the American people that by May 2nd the U.S. will no longer have forces in Afghanistan?
 * THE PRESIDENT: The answer is that it’s going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline. Just in terms of tactical reasons, it’s hard to get those troops out. So, what we’ve been doing — what I’ve been doing and what Secretary Blinken has been doing — has been — we’ve been meeting with our allies, those other nations that have NATO Allies who have troops in Afghanistan as well. And if we leave, we’re going to do so in a safe and orderly way.


 * Q You just said “if we leave.” Do you think it’s possible that we–
 * THE PRESIDENT: We will leave. The question is when we leave.


 * Q Do you — sorry — do you believe, though, it’s possible we could have troops there next year?
 * THE PRESIDENT: I — I can’t picture that being the case.


 * Q Thank you very much, Mr. President. Given the conditions that were just laid out at the migrant facilities at the U.S. border, will you commit to allowing journalists to have access to the facilities that are overcrowded moving forward?
 * THE PRESIDENT: I will commit when my plan, very shortly, is underway to let you have access to not just them, but to other facilities as well.


 * Q How soon will journalists be able to have access to the facilities? We’ve obviously been allowed to be inside one, but we haven’t seen the facilities in which children are packed together to really give the American people a chance to see that. Will you commit to transparency on this issue, Mr. President?
 * THE PRESIDENT: I will commit to transparency, and — as soon as I am in a position to be able to implement what we are doing right now.


 * Q Okay. And just to be clear&colon; How soon will that be, Mr. President?
 * THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know, to be clear.


 * Q Okay. And do you bear responsibility for everything that’s happening at the border now? I hear you talking a lot about the past administration. You decided to roll back some of those policies, did you move too quickly to roll back (inaudible) policies?


 * THE PRESIDENT: To roll back what? I’m sorry.


 * Q Did you move too quickly to roll back some of the executive orders of your predecessor?


 * THE PRESIDENT: First of all, all the policies that were underway were not helping at all — did not slow up the amount of immigration — and there’s many people coming.


 * Q If I could just ask you about foreign policy, Mr. President. Overnight, we learned that North Korea tested two ballistic missiles. What, if any, actions will you take? And what is your red line on North Korea?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Let me say that, number one, U.N. Resolution 1718 was violated by those particular missiles that were tested — number one. We’re consulting with our allies and partners. And there will be responses — if they choose to escalate, we will respond accordingly.


 * Q Just a very quick follow-up —
 * THE PRESIDENT: You’ve only got another hour now, okay?


 * Q Diplomacy&colon; Can you define what you mean? And former President Obama warned the incoming President Trump that North Korea was the top foreign policy issue that he was watching. Is that how you assess the crisis in North Korea?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Yes.


 * Q Thank you very much, Mr. President. I want to go back to voting rights. And as Yamiche mentioned, Republican legislatures across the country are working to pass bills that would restrict voting, particularly, Democrats fear, impacting minority voters and young voters — the very people who helped to get you elected in November.
 * THE PRESIDENT: What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick. Deciding in some states that you cannot bring water to people standing in line, waiting to vote; deciding that you’re going to end voting at five o’clock when working people are just getting off work; deciding that there will be no absentee ballots under the most rigid circumstances.


 * Q Is there anything else you can do about it besides passing legislation?
 * THE PRESIDENT: The answer is “yes,” but I’m not going to lay out a strategy in front of the whole world and you now.


 * Q And then, on a related note, have you decided whether you are going to run for reelection in 2024? You haven’t set up a reelection campaign yet, as your predecessor had by this time.
 * THE PRESIDENT: (Laughs.) My predecessor need do [sic] — needed to. My predecessor. Oh God, I miss him.


 * Q Have you — have you —
 * THE PRESIDENT: No, the answer is “yes.” My plan is to run for reelection. That’s my expectation.


 * Q And then, on — on one other note, on bipartisanship&colon; Your old friend, Mitch McConnell, says you have only spoken to each other once since you took office and that you have moved far left since taking office. Do you see it the same way he does? Have you rejected bipartisanship?
 * THE PRESIDENT: No, I haven’t at all. I’ve been meeting — when is the last time a President invited the opposite party down at least a half a dozen times to talk about issues? Everything from how we work — we’re working with a group of 20 members of the Senate right now and House on how we reestablish our ability to make computer chips and how we get ahead of the game, how we can work together. And we’re working together on a bunch of things.


 * Q Thank you very much, Mr. President. I have a question for you, but first I’d like to follow up on a question from Yamiche, and that’s on the filibuster.
 * THE PRESIDENT: That counts as a question, but go ahead.


 * Q Okay. I’ll make it quick. It’s a quick question.
 * THE PRESIDENT: No, no — you can.


 * Q Regarding the filibuster&colon; At John Lewis’s funeral, President Barack Obama said he believed the filibuster was a “relic” of the Jim Crow era. Do you agree?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Yes.


 * Q And if not, why not abolish it if it’s a relic of the Jim Crow era?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Successful electoral politics is the art of the possible. Let’s figure out how we can get this done and move in the direction of significantly changing the abuse of even the filibuster rule first. It’s been abused from the time it came into being — by an extreme way in the last 20 years. Let’s deal with the abuse first.


 * Q It sounds like you’re moving closer to eliminating the filibuster. Is that correct?
 * THE PRESIDENT: I answered your question.


 * Q You also just made some news by saying that you are going to run for reelection.
 * THE PRESIDENT: I said, “That is my expectation.”


 * Q So is that a “yes” that you are running for reelection?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Look, I — I don’t know where you guys come from, man. I’ve never been able to travel. I’m a great respecter of fate. I’ve never been able to plan four and half, three and a half years ahead for certain.


 * Q And if you do —
 * THE PRESIDENT: It —


 * Q If you do run, will Vice President Harris be on your ticket?
 * THE PRESIDENT: I would fully expect that to be the case. She’s doing a great job. She’s a great partner. She’s a great partner.


 * Q And do you believe you’ll be running against former President Trump?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Oh, come on. I don’t even think about — I don’t — I have no idea. I have no idea if there will be a Republican Party. Do you? I know you don’t have to answer my question, but, I mean, you know, do you?


 * Q Thanks, Mr. President. I wanted to ask about your relationship with China now that you’ve been in office for a couple months. There’s obviously the meeting in Alaska that was a little theatrical, and there’s the continued human rights abuses.


 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, they’re each specifically legitimate questions, but they only touch a smidgen of what the relationship with China really is about.


 * Q All right. Just to follow up on the meeting of democracies&colon; Is that where you expect, in a multilateral way, to make these decisions about sanctions? Or —
 * THE PRESIDENT: No, that’s not where I make the decision; that’s where I make sure we’re all on the same page. All on the same page. Look, I predict to you, your children or grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded: autocracy or democracy? Because that is what is at stake, not just with China.


 * Q And, Mr. President, sorry, I know you haven’t had a chance to address the tragedies in Georgia and Colorado. You had said to stay tuned for actions that you might take on gun control. Wondering if you’ve made a decision either about sending the manufacturer liability bill that you had promised on day one to Capitol Hill, or executive actions like going after ghost guns or giving money to cities and states to battle gun control.
 * THE PRESIDENT: All the above. It’s a matter of timing.


 * Q Thank you, Mr. President. We, too, have been reporting at the border. And just like Cecilia, we ran into a pair of siblings who came in on Monday, who were detained by CBP — had the phone number for their mother who lives in the U.S.  We have contacted the mother. That’s the only way they know her kids are here because CBP, today, Thursday, has not contacted that mother. So when can we expect your promise of things getting better with contacting and expediency and processing?


 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, they’re already getting better, but they’re going to get real — they’ll get a whole hell of lot better real quick, or we’re going to hear of some people leaving, okay?


 * Q As you well know, treating the root cau- — causes in Latin America doesn’t change things overnight. How do you realistically and physically keep these families from coming to the U.S. when things will not get better in their countries right away?
 * THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can’t guarantee that. But I know, you know, that old thing: The journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step.


 * Q If I may ask one last question&colon; Have you had any talks with Senate Republicans who are threatening this administration with not considering the immigration legislation that was passed in the House until the situation at the border has been resolved?
 * THE PRESIDENT: No, because I know they have to posture for a while. They sort of got to get it out of their system. This is a — but I’m ready to work with any Republican who wants to help solve the problem and make the situation better.