It’s Thursday.
Thursday marks President Biden’s 29th day in office.
For day 29, outside of receiving his daily briefing, there is nothing on his schedule. He was scheduled to travel to Michigan today, but that trip has been pushed back until Friday.
He added 7 more tweets to his already 1 tweet for Wednesday, giving him a total of 8 tweets.
1:56 p.m. D.C., time, he shares a snip from his CNN Town Hall which aired Tuesday.
3:34 p.m. D.C., time, he shares another snip for Tuesday’s town hall.
5:42 p.m. D.C., time, he announces that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The White House released a readout of the call:
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today by phone with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. The President affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to Israel’s security and conveyed his intent to strengthen all aspects of the U.S.-Israel partnership, including our strong defense cooperation.
Together, the leaders discussed the importance of continued close consultation on regional security issues, including Iran. The President emphasized U.S. support for the recent normalization of relations between Israel and countries in the Arab and Muslim world.
He underscored the importance of working to advance peace throughout the region, including between Israelis and Palestinians. Together, they affirmed their shared interest in continued strategic cooperation to confront the many challenges facing the region.
White House. 02/17/2021.
The @IsraliPM Twitter account also published a readout of the call:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this evening with US President @JoeBiden. The conversation was very warm and friendly and continued for approximately one hour. pic.twitter.com/AF3x6aTM36
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 17, 2021
The two leaders noted their longstanding personal connection and said that they would work together to continue strengthening the steadfast alliance between Israel and the US.
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 17, 2021
US President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed the future advancement of the peace accords, the Iranian threat and regional challenges, and agreed to continue their dialogue.
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 17, 2021
US President Biden commended Prime Minister Netanyahu on his leadership in the fight against the coronavirus; the two exchanged ideas on ways to deal with the pandemic.
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 17, 2021
At 7:15 p.m. D.C., time, this time instead of sharing a clip of his town hall he shared a photo.
CNN President Biden fact-checker Daniel Dale, fact-checked the town hall and reported that President Biden made at least four false claims during the CNN event.
From Dale’s article:
We’re still looking into some of the claims Biden made, so this article is not comprehensive. But we can tell you now that he made at least four false claims — all of them involving statistics — about the minimum wage, undocumented immigrants, China’s economy and Covid-19 vaccinations.
[Minimum wage]
[President Biden] “For example, if it went — if we gradually increased it — when we indexed it at $7.20, if we kept it indexed by — to inflation, people would be making 20 bucks an hour right now. That’s what it would be.”
[Fact-check] the White House told CNN after the event that Biden got mixed up with another statistic about the minimum wage. Today’s federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which took effect in 2009, would not be even close to $20 per hour if Congress had decided to link it to inflation. Adjusted for inflation, $7.25 in January 2009 was equal to $8.98 in January 2021.
[Immigration]
[President Biden] The vast majority of the people, those 11 million undocumented, they’re not Hispanics; they’re people who came on a visa — who was able to buy a ticket to get in a plane and didn’t go home. They didn’t come across the Rio Grande swimming…”
[Fact-check says President Biden was wrong, adding that it’s difficult to compile “comprehensive statistics on this population group. Dale also added] Biden was more correct with his second claim, about the means by which undocumented people are arriving in the US. A 2019 study by the Center for Migration Studies of New York, based on 2017 data, found that, for the seventh straight year, more newly undocumented people overstayed visas than crossed a border illegally; it was 62% overstays and 38% illegal crossings, according to the study.
[China]
[President Biden said that while he was VP he met with China’s President XI Jinping] And I came back and said they’re going to end their One China — their one child policy, because they’re so xenophobic they won’t let anybody else in, and more people are retired than working. How can they sustain economic growth when more people are retired?”
[Fact-check] It is not even close to true that more people in China are retired than working — even today, let alone when Biden was vice president and the Chinese workforce was younger. China reported having about 775 million employed people at the end of 2019; China had a reported 254 million people aged 60 or above, the normal retirement-benefits age for men. “The working aged population has peaked and is now declining and retirees are growing rapidly, so the ratio of workers to retirees is becoming less favorable. But the ratio is still greater than 1,” said David Dollar, an expert on the Chinese population who is a Brookings Institution senior fellow.
CNN. 02/17/2021.
The Coronavirus vaccine fact-check is very detailed, here are some snips:
He said early at the town hall that when “we came into office, there was only 50 million doses that were available.” Moments later, he said, “We got into office and found out the supply — there was no backlog. I mean, there was nothing in the refrigerator, figuratively and literally speaking, and there were 10 million doses a day that were available.” Soon after that, he told Cooper, “But when you and I talked last, we talked about — it’s one thing to have the vaccine, which we didn’t have when we came into office, but a vaccinator — how do you get the vaccine into someone’s arm?”
Biden got at least one of these statistics wrong — in a way that made Trump look better, not worse, so Biden’s inaccuracy appeared accidental, but we’re noting it anyway. A White House official said that Biden’s claim about “10 million doses a day” being available when he took office was meant to be a reference to the 10 million doses a week that were being sent to states as of the second week of Biden’s term, up from 8.6 million a week when they took over.
CNN. 02/17/2021.
Dale also notes that they aren’t calling a claim false where President Biden misquoted Impeached Twice Asshole’s proud boys “stand back and stand by” debate quote, because President Biden who said on Tuesday that Impeached Asswipe said “stand back and stand ready,” said he might have not remembered the quote correctly.
At 8:21 p.m. D.C., time, President Biden offers his thoughts on Ash Wednesday.
The White House released his statement on Ash Wednesday:
Today, I join Christians across our country and around the world in observing Ash Wednesday. As we enter into the season of Lent, we know this moment of repentance, reflection, and renewal comes in the midst of a painful winter for our nation and the world.
On this Ash Wednesday and every day, we hold every family with an empty place at their table in our hearts. We pray for all those who have fallen on hard times and are worried about what morning will bring. Let us find strength in each other and faith that provides us purpose. And let us look with hope and anticipation toward Easter and brighter days ahead.
White House. 02/17/2021.
9:12 p.m. D.C., time, he mentions his meeting with labor leaders to discuss the American Rescue Plan.
The White House provided a readout on the labor leaders meeting held on Wednesday.
Today, President Biden and senior White House officials hosted a meeting with a group of labor union leaders to discuss the importance of the American Rescue Plan and the President’s plans to create millions of jobs in R&D, manufacturing and clean energy. The meeting included unions representing workers from across the country — the backbone of our nation, the working class.
During the meeting, the labor leaders underscored a shared commitment to collaborating and coordinating with the federal government to ensure we build back better after this pandemic and that the future of America is made in America, by American workers.
Additionally, President Biden engaged the labor leaders during the meeting in a conversation about their priorities, recommendations, and the importance of ensuring union workers play a key role in building a resilient and sustainable infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and a changing climate all while creating millions of good paying union jobs in the process.
White House. 02/17/2021.
The labor leaders in attendance:
- James T. Callahan, General President, International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE)
- Eric Dean, General President, Iron Workers International Union (IW)
- Robert Martinez, Jr., International President, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW)
- Sean McGarvey, President, North America’s Building Trades Union (NABTU)
- Mark McManus, General President, United Association Union of Plumbers, Fitters, Welders, & Service Techs (UA)
- Terry O’Sullivan, General President, Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA)
- Kenneth E. Rigmaiden, General President, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT)
- Elizabeth H. Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
- Lonnie Stephenson, International President, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
- Richard Trumka, President, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
The Oval Office pool spray of the meeting:
At 10:00 p.m. D.C., time, President Biden said that his Administration would be:
The announcement came on Wednesday morning, made at the White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained the actions during her daily briefing.
Psaki: Today, our COVID Response Team also announced critical steps to expand testing in the United States, a critical piece of turning the tide of the pandemic and protecting our public health. Today, they have announced that the federal government will invest $1.6 billion — already allocated funds — but in three areas. And this includes $650 million to support testing in schools and underserved communities. HHS will use these funds to create regional coordinating centers that will partner with labs to leverage their underutilized testing capacity. These coordinating centers will help match lab capacity with demand from schools, congregate settings like homeless shelters, or other underserved populations. Almost $200 million will go to increase genomic sequencing. This surge in funding will result in a threefold increase in the CDC’s genomic sequencing capacity to get us to 25,000 samples a week. This will help us identify variants sooner, which is obviously important and pivotal at this point in time. And $815 million will go to manufacture critical testing supplies on things like filter pipette tips, nitrocellulose used in antigen tests, and specialized injection molded plastics needed to house testing regents.These are critical steps to address vital issues. This funding and these efforts are far from what is necessary; it simply provides a bridge to the funding that is in the American Rescue Plan, which will help us get more shots into the arms of Americans.
As seems to be his typical behavior so far he has not tweeted for Thursday.
In our way back machine we go, never fear, we are almost caught up in real time, with President Biden and his tweets.
January 30th, 2021, was his 10th in Office, and a Saturday. He tweeted 3 times.
11:30 a.m. D.C., time.
1. Pushes the American Rescue Plan.
As you might remember, I know I do, the American Rescue Plan information can be found @ the White House.
2:30 p.m. D.C., time.
2. Talks about the actions he has taken over the first ten days of his first 100 day’s.
CNN has a comprehensive list of the actions taken so far by President Biden, it was updated on February 11th, 2021. To view the actions taken by President Biden, you can find them @ the White House.
8:30 p.m. D.C., time.
3. Shares photos from his visit to Walter Reed from Friday the 29th, of January.
As the News Blender covered at the time, his scheduled just said “visits Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.”
Daniel Dale was asked “why is President Biden visiting Walter Reed,” to which he said:
“To visit with wounded service members,” per the White House introduction to the schedule. https://t.co/lKSJu4g7M2
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 29, 2021
That’s where we stop for today…
The daily press briefing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. D.C., time.
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