It’s Friday aka the Last Friday in March. šÆ
The Last Friday In March marks President Biden’s 65th day in office.
For day 65 President Biden will receive his daily brief. In the afternoon he will receive his economic briefing, followed by holding a virtual fundraiser for Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. This evening the President will travel to his home in Delaware.
For Thursday President Biden tweeted 10 times and retweeted 1 time.
On Thursday President Biden held his first formal press conference. It was scheduled to start at 1:15 p.m. D.C., time based on his first tweet for Thursday which was posted at 1:27 p.m. D.C., time and a live feed of his presser. He was 12 minutes late for his scheduled start time.
I will be doing things slightly different but hopefully not extremely confusing. *fingers crossed*
The presser was 1 hour and 2 seconds long. His remarks can be found @ White House.gov.
The White House YouTube full presser:
While he was speaking…
@ 1:47 p.m. D.C., time his account posted a snip from his presser.
His full remarks regarding the above tweet start at the 6 minute and 28 second mark and are in response to a reporters question:
Q: And just to ā to follow up, Mr. President, can your presidency be a success if you canāt make progress on those four challenges: climate change, immigration reform, gun control, voting rights?
Well, I plan on making progress on all of them, but thatās going to be for the American people to decide.
I think ā you know, I doubt whether ā maybe you did; maybe others did. I thought ā many of you thought there was no possibility of my getting the plan I got passed, passed, without any Republican votes. A pretty big deal. It got passed. Growing the economy. Peopleās lives are changing.
White House.gov. 03/25/2021.
So letās see what happens. All I know, Iāve been hired to solve problems ā to solve problems, not create division.
And again while he was speaking…
@ 1:53 p.m. D.C., time the account posted similar verbiage used in his opening remarks from his presser before he took reporter questions.
@ 2:45 p.m. D.C., time his account posted video snip that’s 34 seconds long and repeats words posted in the above tweet.
His opening remarks in part:
Please, please sit down. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Before I take questions, I want to make ā give you a progress report to the nation on where we stand 65 days into office here on vaccinations and a few other top priorities for the American people.
White House.gov. 03/25/2021.
[from the video snip] First, on vaccinations: On December 8th, I indicated that I hoped to get 100 million shots in peopleās arms in my first 100 days. We met that goal last week by day 58 ā 42 days ahead of schedule.
Now, today, Iām setting a second goal, and that is: We will, by my 100th day in office, have administered 200 million shots in peopleās arms. Thatās right: 200 million shots in 100 days.
I know itās ambitious, twice our original goal, but no other country in the world has even come close ā not even close ā to what we are doing. And I believe we can do it.
@ 5:17 p.m. D.C., time he shared another video snip from his press conference.
The snip is 25 seconds long and taken once again from his opening remarks.
As of yesterday, more than 100 million payments of $1,400 have gone into peopleās bank accounts. Thatās real money in peopleās pockets, bringing relief instantly, almost. And millions more will be getting their money very soon.
White House.govļ»æ. 03/25/2021.
In a new twist, he posted a tweet using words from his retweeted tweet @ 6:47 p.m. D.C., time.
The retweeted tweet was posted by the White House account @ 6:36 p.m. D.C., time.
The above tweet is the first in a thread, it appears the POTUS account simply combined the thread into one tweet.
From the presser where he used similar language to both tweets…
And today, weāve made a historic investment in reaching the hardest-hit and the most vulnerable communities, the highest-risk communities ā as a consequence of the virus ā by investing an addition $10 billion in being able to reach them.
I also set a goal, before I took office, of getting a majority of schools in K through 8 fully open in the first 100 days. Now, thanks to the enormous amount of work done by our administration, educators, parents, local, state education officials and leaders ā a recent Department of Education Department survey shows that nearly half of the K-through-8 schools are open now full time, five days a week, for in-person learning. Not yet a majority, but weāre really close. And I believe, in the 35 days left to go, weāll meet that goal as well.
White House.gov. 03/25/2021.
@ 7:30 p.m. D.C., time he shares another video clip from his press conference; this time it’s 1 minute and 34 seconds long.
The video snip is taken from a reporters question regarding voter suppression bills that have been passed, are being passed, or debated across the country spear headed by Republican state reps. The exchange starts at the 31 minute and 46 second mark using the White House YouTube feed.
Q: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I want to go back to voting rights. And as Yamiche mentioned, Republican legislatures across the country are working to pass bills that would restrict voting, particularly, Democrats fear, impacting minority voters and young voters ā the very people who helped to get you elected in November.
Are you worried that if you donāt manage to pass voting rights legislation that your party is going to lose seats and possibly lose control of the House and the Senate in 2022?What Iām worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. Itās sick. Itās sick. Deciding in some states that you cannot bring water to people standing in line, waiting to vote; deciding that youāre going to end voting at five oāclock when working people are just getting off work; deciding that there will be no absentee ballots under the most rigid circumstances.
Itās all designed ā and Iām going to spend my time doing three things: One, trying to figure out how to pass the legislation passed by the House, number one. Number two, educating the American public. The Republican voters I know find this despicable. Republican voters, the folks out in ā outside this White House. Iām not talking about the elected officials; Iām talking about voters. Voters.And so I am convinced that weāll be able to stop this because it is the most pernicious thing. This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle. I mean, this is gigantic what theyāre trying to do, and it cannot be sustained.
White House.gov. 03/25/2021.
Iām going to do everything in my power, along with my friends in the House and the Senate, to keep that from ā from becoming the law.
As many are already aware, on Thursday Georgia passed a massive overhaul to how the people of Georgia will vote.
Democracy Docket founder and lawyer Marc Elias has filed suit against the voter suppressing bill.
The complaint can be found here.
At 9:02 p.m. D.C., time President Biden shared another snip from his presser.
The 1 minute and 8 second snip was lifted from his opening remarks.
Since we passed the American Rescue Plan, weāre starting to see new signs of hope in our economy. Since it was passed, a majority ā a majority of economic forecasters have significantly increased their projections on the economic growth thatās going to take place this year. Theyāre now projecting it will exceed 6 percent ā a 6 percent growth in GDP.
And just this morning, we learned that the number of people filing for weekly unemployment insurance fell by nearly 100,000 persons. Thatās the first time in a year the number has fallen below the pre-pandemic high.
So there are still too many Americans out of work, too many families hurting, and we still have a lot of work to do.
But I can say to you, the American people: Help is here, and hope is on the way.
ļ»æWhite House.gov. 03/25/2021.
He sent two non-presser related tweets:
The first at 5:51 p.m. D.C., time, the second 11:24 p.m. D.C., time.
A readout of the call was posted @ White House.gov.
President Joseph R. Biden spoke today with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.Ā He congratulated Greece on the celebration of its bicentennial and expressed his commitment to further deepening the strong bilateral ties between our countries.Ā He also conveyed his appreciation for our growing defense cooperation, including through the U.S. Naval Support Activity Souda Bay. The two leaders agreed to work together to address the threat of climate change and pursue a sustainable economic recovery.Ā The President conveyed his hope for stability in the Eastern Mediterranean. They also agreed to coordinate on issues of shared interest, including energy security, China, Russia, and the Western Balkans.
White House.gov. 03/25/2021.
For Friday President Biden has tweeted so far 2 times and retweeted 0 times.
Both tweets are video snips from the presser…
10:01 a.m. D.C., time; clip is 45 seconds long.
12:15 p.m. D.C., time; clip is 49 seconds long.
The first tweet’s video is from his opening remarks:
I also set a goal, before I took office, of getting a majority of schools in K through 8 fully open in the first 100 days. Now, thanks to the enormous amount of work done by our administration, educators, parents, local, state education officials and leaders ā a recent Department of Education Department survey shows that nearly half of the K-through-8 schools are open now full time, five days a week, for in-person learning. Not yet a majority, but weāre really close. And I believe, in the 35 days left to go, weāll meet that goal as well.
White House.gov. 03/25/2021.
The second tweet is in response to if he’s running again for President in 2024. The exchange starts at the 37 minute and 8 second mark from the White House YouTube feed posted above.
The sniped video remarks happen at the 39 minute and 45 second mark.
I said, āIām running for three reasons: to restore the soul, dignity, honor, honesty, transparency to the American political system; two, to rebuild the backbone of this country–the middle class, hardworking people, and people struggling to get in the middle class. They built America, and unions built them.ā The third reason I said I was running was to unite the country. And, generically speaking, all of you said, āNo, you canāt do that.ā Well, Iāve not been able to unite the Congress, but Iāve been uniting the country, based on the polling data. We have to come together. We have to.
White House.gov. 03/25/2021.
The daily presser feed: The White House.
This is an Open Thread.
Happy Friday!!! I hope everyone has a great weekend. I’ll see on the other side…
