Joe Biden held the first press conference of his presidency on the 25th. The main focal points were immigration, COVID-19, the filibuster, Afghanistan, voting rights, and China. This press conference comes 65 days into Biden's presidency after many issues have been pushed into the public eye in recent weeks. Here is a brief recap of everything that Biden covered in the conference:
COVID-19
A major talking point of today's conference was COVID-19 and the status of his promise to have distributed 100 million vaccines within his first 100 days as president. He opened his conference by stating that this goal was officially met very early on in his presidency, and that his administration now plans to vaccinate 200 million people within the first 100 days of his presidency. When asked about immediately addressing other issues, Biden said that controlling the pandemic was priority number one, and that all other goals were secondary. He stated that there will be more progress in other issues once the pandemic is over.
Immigration
The topic that received the most attention during the conference was immigration. Biden was questioned about the influx of migrants coming across the border over the past several months, and how many have speculated that this is because of how Biden is perceived as a nice man that won't deport people. Biden responded by saying that the influx of migrants is not anything to do with his character, and has more to do with the season. People will immigrate during the winter months because of how harsh the desert conditions are in the summer. He stated that this pattern has been observed for many years and is not unique to his presidency. When asked about how he was planning to resolve the immigration problem, he stated that he was going to focus on what he believed to be the root of the problem. Biden stated that he was going to try to improve the living conditions in countries where people are most likely to immigrate from. Biden was also questioned about journalists gaining access to the rest of the migrant housing facilities. He was unclear about when this would happen, only stating that journalists would be allowed when they were finished setting up.
Afghanistan
Biden was also asked about Afghanistan, and when troops were expected to be brought home by the May 1st deadline. Biden said that this deadline was unrealistic because of logistics and safety issues, but that he was planning on removing troops soon. He expects troops to be completely removed in a safe and organized way in exactly one year from the press conference.
Fillibuster
When asked about reforming or entirely removing the filibuster, Biden said that he would like to reform it back to its 1917 form. Biden wants to filibuster to be less abuseable. He wants Senators to have to hold the floor to actually delay action in the Senate. Between 1917 and 1971, there were 58 motions to break filibuster. Last year alone this number was surpassed by five times that amount. It is unclear whether or not action will be taken in removing or reforming the filibuster.
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