It’s Sunday.
For Sunday, the 2nd of January, President Biden has no public events scheduled.
CNN reporter Betsy Klein reported on Friday that President Biden will speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday.
Biden, a White House official said, “plans to speak by phone with President Zelensky of Ukraine on Sunday to reaffirm US support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, discuss Russia’s military build-up on Ukraine’s borders, and review preparations for upcoming diplomatic engagements to help de-escalate the situation in the region.”
CNN. 12/31/2021.
The call comes just days after President Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki released the following statement on Thursday:
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. President Biden urged Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine. He made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine. President Biden also expressed support for diplomacy, starting early next year with the bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue, at NATO through the NATO-Russia Council, and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. President Biden reiterated that substantive progress in these dialogues can occur only in an environment of de-escalation rather than escalation.
White House.gov. 12/30/2021.
President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden spoke to reporters on Friday; the White House posted the following transcript:
THE FIRST LADY: Happy New Year!
Q: President Biden, what did you convey on your call with Vladimir Putin?
THE PRESIDENT: I made it clear to President Putin that if he — he makes any more moves and goes into Ukraine, we will have severe sanctions. We will increase our — our presence in Europe with our NATO Allies, and it will have to be a heavy price to pay for it.
Q: Did you get the sense that he is any less likely to invade Ukraine after your conversation?
THE PRESIDENT: What I got the sense of is that he has agreed that we would have three major conferences in Europe beginning in the middle of the month with our senior staffs that relate to the OSCE, the Russia-NATO Council, as well as the continuation of discussions on our strategic doctrine. And so, he did not disagree with any of that.
And he laid out some of his concerns about NATO and the United States and Europe, and we laid out ours. And we said we’d begin to negotiate some of those issues. But I made it clear that they only could work if, in fact, he deescalated, not escalated, the situation there.Q: Do you expect more concrete progress after the talks in January?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I always expect if you negotiate you make progress, but we’ll see. We’ll see. Thanks.
Q: Does Russia face sanctions if he keeps troops at the border?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m not going to negotiate here in public, but we made it clear that he cannot — I emphasize “cannot” — move on Ukraine. Thank you.
Q: Do you have a response on the news of Betty White?
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a shame. She was a lovely lady. Always was.
THE FIRST LADY: Who didn’t love Betty White?
THE PRESIDENT: (Laughs.)
THE FIRST LADY: We’re so sad about her death.
THE PRESIDENT: Ninety-nine years old.
THE FIRST LADY: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: As my mother would say, God love her. Incredible.
THE FIRST LADY: We loved her.Q: Any New Year’s resolutions?
THE FIRST LADY: Not yet. (Laughs.)
THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to try to earn her — more love, you know? (Laughter.) I mean, everybody knows that I love her more than she loves me. We work on it hard.
Q: Will you travel to Colorado?
THE PRESIDENT: Say it again?
Q: Will you travel to Colorado?THE PRESIDENT: I may very well. We’ll see. Thank you.
White House.gov. 12/31/2021.
Q: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: By the way, I had a long talk with the Governor this morning. We’ve initiated additional help with the governor. But anyway.
President Biden has tweeted…
As of 11:50 a.m. D.C., time or in this case Delaware time, President Biden has not tweeted…
When Biden Bits was posted for New Year’s Eve, President Biden had not tweeted. He added 2 tweets giving him a New Year’s Eve Tweeting Total of 2 tweets and 0 retweet.
The tweeted video is 38 seconds long.
President Biden: We often hear people described as “ordinary Americans.” There’s nothing ordinary about them. After losing loved ones, jobs, and facing uncertainty, we’re persevering. We’re recovering. Back to work. Back to school. Back to joy. That’s extraordinary. That’s how we made it through this year. And how we’ll embrace the next. Together.
I shared this tweet in Saturday’s Afternoon Open Thread, but wanted to keep his tweets together so here it is one more time. Betty White passed away on Friday she was 99 years old.
President Biden has a Saturday Tweeting Total of 2 tweets and 0 retweets.
The above tweet is actually counted for Friday as it posted at exactly midnight and not 12:01 eastern time. But I’m totally counting it as his first January 2022 tweet…
The 1 minute and 1 second video is a highlight reel of President Biden’s first year in office.
This is the personal note section of today’s Biden Bits:
This is my 1800 article for the News Blender; it seemed fitting that I post the Presidential Tweets as it was Twice Impeached 45’s tweets that gave me a push to write blog posts at all.
According to Twitter’s count, President Biden has tweeted 2,199 tweets since he was sworn in as President. We know President Biden’s tweet count begins on January 20th, 2021 as he started the @POTUS account over from the beginning.
Two of those don’t count toward 2021’s count as they were posted on January 1st, 2022. Since I didn’t start covering the tweets until February 8th, 2021, I can’t say 100 percent that President Biden has only deleted 1 tweet since his accounts creation. But I can say, I’ve only covered 1 deleted tweet since February 8th, 2021.
It’s almost a whole year covering President Biden versus Twice Impeached 45; I still hate Presidential tweets; I obviously hated Twice Impeached 45’s more, but still for me as a person/voter, I simply do not like our government officials tweeting.
To be a bit of a sap for a second I do want to once again thank you, Blenders. You allow me to channel hate into something I feel is more; usually, I feel this way, productive. Here I’m allowed to archive, keep track, and GIF my way through Presidential Tweeting…
Speaking of Twitter…
Twitter’s statement: “We permanently suspended the account for repeated violations of our Covid-19 misinformation policy.” pic.twitter.com/86Yzqqj7r1
— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) January 2, 2022
Twitter confirms to me that Marjorie Taylor Greene has gotten up to 5 strikes on its Covid-19 misinformation policy. She’s not coming back. pic.twitter.com/tSlBtMFmGB
— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) January 2, 2022
More: Twitter also confirms she still has access to her official account @RepMTG, as it's not currently in violation of the Twitter Rules.
— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) January 2, 2022
But Twitter has banned accounts before (notably Trump) for ban evasion. So if violating tweets appear there, it'll likely be suspended too.
Here's our first cut, story will continue to be updated: https://t.co/oPhNF0FH0d
— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) January 2, 2022
I’ve gifted the New York Times article; at least I hope the link works…*fingers crossed*
MTG responds on Telegram, since she can't tweet. "Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth." pic.twitter.com/M8IgCU4KFa
— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) January 2, 2022
My first reaction…
My second reaction…
My third reaction…
P.S…
I want to once again thank Lenny Ghoul, for making my Holiday Biden Bits photo; it was cute and fun. It will now be retired for the next 11-ish months.
P.S.S…
Reminder that Halodoc will be covering Monday and Tuesday’s posts as I go to Disneyland tomorrow for one last Merriest Place visit to ride Holiday Small World…
Given the rise in coronavirus cases I’ve struggled with this trip more than our other trips. But we’ve decided we will once again skip the parade(s) and fireworks as both those events are impossible to social distance and the least likely to include outdoor mask wearing from other Disneyland visitors. It’s another one day trip that will produce very little in the way of photos for next weekend…
You’re welcome.
This is an Open Thread.
