It’s Thursday.
In my haste I neglected to include my daily song.
When Biden Bits was posted for Wednesday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times. He added two more tweets giving him a Wednesday Tweeting Total of 4 tweets and 0 retweets.
The 29 second video snip is taken from remarks he gave on Tuesday from Atlanta, GA regarding voting rights. The YouTube is 41 minutes and 10 seconds long. President Biden begins his remarks at the 11 minute and 3 second mark. His full remarks can be found here.
President Biden: Hear me plainly: The battle for the soul of America is not over. We must stand strong and stand together to make sure January 6th marks not the end of democracy but the beginning of a renaissance of our democracy. (Applause.) You know, for the right to vote and to have that vote counted is democracy’s threshold liberty. Without it, nothing is possible, but with it, anything is possible.
President Biden: It’s not just here in Georgia. Last year alone, 19 states not proposed but enacted 34 laws attacking voting rights. There were nearly 400 additional bills Republican members of state legislatures tried to pass. And now, Republican legislators in several states have already announced plans to escalate the onslaught this year.
President Biden: And the world is watching. I know the majority of the world leaders — the good and the bad ones, adversaries and allies alike. They’re watching American democracy and seeing whether we can meet this moment. And that’s not hyperbole.
For Thursday January 13th, 2022, President Biden has received his daily brief. This morning he will deliver remarks on the whole-government COVID-19 surge response; the Secretary of Defense, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will also attend. In the afternoon President Biden will meet with the Democratic Caucus to discuss legislation to protect the right to vote.
President Biden has tweeted 1 time so far.
President Biden’s remarks are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. D.C., time. We now join the program in progress.
UPDATE:
I wasn’t going to update this thread today, but well, here we are…
Since post time President Biden has added 2 tweets and 1 retweeting bring his total number of tweets to 3 and his retweet total to 1 so far for Thursday…
During yesterday’s press briefing Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked if she could elaborate on comments made during yesterday’s COVID-19 response team briefing regarding masks. Her full remarks can be found here.
Q: And one on COVID. In the briefing this morning, Jeff said you’re in the process of, quote, “strongly considering options to make more high-quality masks available to all Americans.” But I don’t think they really got into specifics on that. Can you share any of the options that you guys are looking at on that?
I don’t have more details. I would just echo — what Jeff said is that we are strongly considering that and certainly want to ensure that everybody has the necessary protections as we continue to fight the virus.
Go ahead, in the back — let’s see. Go ahead. Go ahead, Jonathan.
White House.gov. 01/12/2022.
She was pressed further on the mask question:
Q: To follow up on the issue of masks and this push to expand access to high-quality masks — health experts have long been urging and calling for Americans to upgrade their masks. So why wait until now to push for this wider availability of better masks? Like, what’s taken so long?
So, just to be clear: There is no shortage of masks on the market. That — that is not an issue. I know that my colleagues from the COVID team made clear that we have a strong stockpile — over 750 million masks — that we have at our disposal, widely available — N95 masks, other masks.
What the CDC director conveyed is that they’re going — they’re in the process of updating the information on their website to help address and answer these questions. Their guidance currently is a well-fitted mask.
But what we’re trying to do is continue to be responsive to what people’s needs are across the country and make sure they’re getting the supplies where we need them.
But there’s no shortage. There is a wide — 750 million masks that we have available.
White House.gov. 01/12/2022.
The retweet was from the White House saying:
More on this will be available from the White House or possibly HHS later today…
The daily briefing is schedule for 3:00 p.m. D.C., time. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will attended today’s daily press briefing.
This is an Open Thread.
