Vaccination, China and the second term: what Joe Biden talked about at his first press conference

On Thursday, March 25, Joe Biden's long-awaited press conference took place - his first since taking office as President of the United States.

However, the journalists gathered in the Eastern Room of the White House were unlikely to be completely satisfied, since the meeting lasted a little over an hour, and the main news was the intention to run for a second term announced by the 78-year-old head of state.

“Yes, I plan to fight for re-election.

These are my expectations, ”the president said.

He later added, answering a clarifying question: “I respect fate.

I have never been able to accurately plan for 3.5-4.5 years in advance. "

To another clarifying question about who he would like to see as his partner in the election campaign, Biden replied that he expects to continue working with Vice President Kamala Harris: "She's doing great."

At the same time, the president began his speech with a statement in which he outlined the goal of 200 million vaccinations against coronavirus, which Americans should do in the first 100 days of his rule.

Earlier, Biden announced a goal of 100 million doses over the same period, however, according to him, this milestone was reached last week.

At the same time, further during the briefing, the head of state was not asked a single question about the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, as indicated by a number of journalists.

Surprising not a single question about COVID

- Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) March 25, 2021

The President spoke about the economic difficulties faced by ordinary Americans, as well as the need to address existing problems, in particular, related to the control of firearms and immigration.

The Republicans "must decide" whether they intend to cooperate with the new administration on these issues, he said.

At the same time, discussing one of the rules of the Senate, according to which 60 votes are required for the passage of important documents through the upper house of Congress, Biden dropped an ambiguous phrase: "When I came to the American Senate 120 years ago."

Answering the question about the prospects for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan by the date set by the agreement with the Taliban * - May 1, 2021, Biden said that "it will be difficult" to meet this date, "just for tactical reasons."

At the same time, he noted that Washington is holding consultations with its allies, but he assured that sooner or later the American contingent will leave Afghanistan.

Speaking about the position of the White House in connection with the latest missile launches of the DPRK, the American leader stressed that a response to such steps will follow if Pyongyang chooses a course to escalate the situation.

At the same time, he noted that he was ready for "some form of diplomacy", which should be associated with denuclearization as a final result.

The President also said that Washington is holding consultations with its allies in the Indo-Pacific region on the issue of countering China, specifying: we are talking about Australia, India and Japan.

According to him, the United States intends to "hold China accountable" on various issues.

Talking about his relationship with President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, the US President called him "a very smart person", but an autocrat.

At the same time, he compared the Chinese leader to Vladimir Putin - and this was the only mention of the Russian president in the entire press conference.

The gathered journalists also did not ask the owner of the White House about relations with Moscow.

In conclusion, Biden said to the audience: “Guys, I went (Folks I'm going - the American media immediately drew an analogy with the ending of the Looney Tunes cartoons.

- RT

),” and left the press conference.

Summing up the preliminary results of the first briefing by the President of the United States, which broke more than a century record for its distance from the inauguration date, some journalists could not resist comparing the behavior of Biden and his predecessor.

Media representatives stated that the new owner of the White House during the press conference actively used the prepared recordings, and his answers were rather cautious, as opposed to the assertive manner of communicating with journalists, which was distinguished by Donald Trump.

At the same time, Politico columnist Jack Schafer noted last week that in fact, the 46th US president's avoidance of press conferences may be part of his political strategy.

He cited the example of Barack Obama, who during his first term as head of state held only 36 press conferences.

In turn, journalist Chuck Todd in his book The Stranger: Barack Obama in the White House wrote that George W. Bush, Jr., took part in only 17 press conferences during his first four years.

* "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.