Biden Holds First Formal News Conference – The New York Times

President Biden on Thursday called efforts to limit voting rights “sick” and “un-American,” saying that even Republican voters view actions that make it harder for people to cast ballots as “despicable” attempts to undermine democracy.

Speaking to reporters in his first formal news conference, Mr. Biden said the filibuster — which requires 60 votes to pass legislation in the Senate — was being “abused in a gigantic way” and signaled that he would be open to more aggressive steps to limit or abolish it, starting with a proposal that would require senators to keep talking in order to block legislation.

“I strongly support moving in that direction,” he said. “If there’s complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster, then we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about.”

During a question-and-answer session that lasted more than an hour, Mr. Biden said that it was his “expectation” that he will run for re-election in 2024, with Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate. He reiterated that it will be hard to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by May 1. And he touted his administration’s progress in fighting the pandemic, vowing to deliver 200 million vaccinations by the end of April — twice his previous pledge.

But even as he promised that “hope is on the way,” Mr. Biden was barraged with questions about his handling of the migrant surge at the U.S. border with Mexico. He insisted that officials are doing everything they can to treat migrant children humanely and repeatedly blamed former President Donald J. Trump for the overcrowding in facilities at the border.

“He in fact shut down the number of beds available” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Trump. “He did not fund HHS to get the children out of those border patrol facilities where they should not be.”

“He dismantled all that,” Mr. Biden said.

The president insisted that his administration will accelerate efforts to move migrant children out of crowded conditions on the border, saying that he had directed his top immigration officials this week to accelerate the pace at which migrant children are placed with relatives already living in the United States.

“It’s going to get a whole hell of a lot better real quick or we’re going to hear some people leaving,” he said. “We can get this done. We’re going to get it done.”

The news conference was Mr. Biden’s first extended grilling by journalists since taking office more than two months ago. Since then, his advisers have carefully controlled his interactions with the press, which have included one-on-one interviews and some limited opportunities for reporters to ask questions during brief appearances.

A veteran politician with a long history of verbal gaffes during unscripted moments, Mr. Biden has entered the presidency with more than his usual amount of discipline about his message. But his decision to finally face reporters in a more formal way — a White House tradition for decades — was a test of his ability to maintain that discipline under pressure.

In response to a question about his agenda, Mr. Biden said that Republicans in Congress will play a role in determining how he proceeds in trying to make progress on his priorities beyond recovering from the pandemic, including gun control, climate change, immigration and voting rights.

“My Republican colleagues are going to have to determine whether or not we want to work together, or they’ve decided that the way in which they want to proceed is to just divide the country, continue the politics of division,” he said.

Advisers to the president had delayed his first news conference until after passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, hoping to use the highly-anticipated event as part of a victory lap for Mr. Biden as he promotes the benefits of the economic stimulus measure and tries to build support for even more spending.

But Mr. Biden’s appearance came at a moment of national mourning over the mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia, and just hours after North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast — both of which serve as reminders that a president’s agenda can often be derailed or shifted by national or global events.

Mr. Trump had largely abandoned the idea of infrequent, formal news conferences, preferring to engage more informally and repeatedly with reporters before meetings or as he boarded Marine One to leave the White House.

But for most presidents, news conferences can be important tools to build large audiences that have the chance of breaking through a media environment that has been fragmented by Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies. Mr. Biden’s aides are hoping to tap into that same dynamic.

There is also risk, however. Off-script remarks made by the president during news conferences can become dominating or derailing issues for the White House. During a 2009 news conference, former President Barack Obama said, “Cambridge police acted stupidly” in arresting a Black Harvard University professor, prompting weeks of follow-on coverage.