Biden concedes his team should have done more to ramp up Covid testing
In his opening remarks from the podium, Biden said, “It’s been a year of challenges, but it’s also been a year of enormous progress.”
Biden began his press conference at the White House touting progress on vaccinations, reopening the economy, creating jobs and lowering unemployment. But he also acknowledged the challenges facing his administration as he enters his second year in office.
He said there continues to be “frustration and fatigue in this country” over Covid-19, reiterating that “while it’s cause for concern, it’s not cause for panic.”
He conceded his team should have done more to ramp up testing, but listed steps he’s taken to make kits more available, arguing that “we’re in a better place than we have been thus far, clearly better than a year ago.”
“I’m not going to give up and accept things as they are now. Some people may call what’s happening now the new normal. I call it a job not yet finished. It will get better. We’re moving toward a time when Covid-19 won’t disrupt our daily lives,” he continued.
In his opening remarks, the President also addressed the economic complications of the pandemic, including rising prices for consumers.
Biden is fielding questions from reporters as his administration struggles to contain the latest surge of the Omicron variant and works to ease the economic anxiety gripping the nation.
“The President knows there’s more work to do,” an administration official said ahead of the press conference. “So he’s also going to level with the American people about the challenges we still face — especially when it comes to Covid-19 and higher prices — and the actions he’s taking to tackle them.”
The President is entering his second year in office — a midterm election year — after facing a number of recent setbacks. The centerpiece of his economic agenda has hit a roadblock in Congress, it is unclear whether the Democrats’ push for voting rights legislation will go anywhere, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s vaccine mandates for big businesses and recent key economic indicators show record inflation.
The President regularly fields questions from reporters after delivering remarks and during departures and arrivals at the White House, but he hasn’t held as many formal news conferences as his recent predecessors.
By comparison, President Donald Trump held 21 news conferences in his first year in office, but just one of them was solo and the rest were joint appearances, usually with foreign leaders. (In his last year in office, as the pandemic took hold, Trump held a staggering 35 solo news conferences.)
President Barack Obama held 27 news conferences in his first year — 11 solo and 16 of them joint. President George W. Bush held 19 news conferences — five solo and 14 joint, according to UCSB data. Then-President Bill Clinton held 12 solo news conferences and 26 joint ones, resulting in 38 news conferences in his first year in office.
Biden, who came into office vowing to restore the US’ credibility on the world stage, will likely face questions on Wednesday about a number of looming and imminent foreign policy challenges.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has amassed tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border and appears poised to invade the nation. US officials have grown increasingly pessimistic about the possibility of salvaging the Iran nuclear deal and have warned of turning to other options if diplomacy fails. China remains accused of forced labor and human rights abuses in the country’s western region of Xinjiang, and the US has said it will not send an official US delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
