President Biden Holds First Formal News Conference

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Currents News Staff

Joe Biden faced the press in his first news conference after more than nine weeks into his presidency.

“I want to give you a progress report to the nation,” President Biden said.

The event happened later for Biden than it did for his 15 recent predecessors. The White House said the president wanted to keep the focus on his COVID recovery agenda in his first weeks.

On that topic, he announced a new vaccination target for the country.

“By my hundredth day in office, we will have administered 200 million shots in people’s arms,” Biden said. “No other country in the world has even come close.”

But in recent days, other urgent issues have demanded a spot on his agenda.

In the wake of mass shootings in Georgia and in Colorado that took the lives of 18 people within a week, Biden was pressed for how he’ll work with a sharply-divided Congress to deliver the gun control reform he has promised.

“It’s a matter of timing,” Biden said.

And similarly, there were talks of a legislative solution as the U.S. grapples with an influx of migrants, many of them unaccompanied children at the southern border with Mexico. The migrants are overwhelming detention centers amid the ongoing pandemic.

“What we’re attempting to do now is rebuild,” Biden said. “Rebuild the system that can accommodate what’s happening today.”

In addition to domestic policy issues, Biden also addressed a number of foreign policy challenges, including North Korea, China and Russia.