Biden Bits: “Across the U.S.”…

April 3, 2024 12:00 pm EDT Tiff Biden Tweets (Open Thread) Comments Off on Biden Bits: “Across the U.S.”…
Biden Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Wednesday…

President Biden’s public schedule for 04/03/2024:

10:00 AM
Presidential Daily Brief		The President receives the President’s Daily Brief
The White House Closed Press
11:00 AM
Remarks		The President delivers remarks on lowering health care costs for Americans
Indian Treaty Room Pre-Credentialed Media and Pooled for TV
1:30 PM
Press Briefing		Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre; Forth News says the Briefing has been rescheduled for 12:30 p.m. D.C., time:


Florida’s Supreme Court/Roe v Wade Tweets

From Tuesday…

From Wednesday…

Statement from President Joe Biden on Florida Supreme Court Decision:

Yesterday’s extreme decision puts desperately needed medical care even further out of reach for millions of women in Florida and across the South. The Court not only upheld Florida’s current ban on women being able to make their own reproductive choices, it will likely trigger Governor DeSantis’ even more extreme law that would prevent women from accessing care before many even know they are pregnant. It is outrageous.

Florida’s bans – like those put forward by Republican elected officials across the country – are putting the health and lives of millions of women at risk. These extreme laws take away women’s freedom to make their own health care decisions and threaten physicians with jail time simply for providing the medical care that they were trained to provide.

Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose, including in Florida, where voters will have the opportunity to make their voices heard in support of a reproductive freedom ballot initiative this November. We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting reproductive freedom in Florida and across the nation and will continue to call on Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade in every state.

Statement from President Joe Biden on Florida Supreme Court Decision. 04/02/2024.

From NBC News:

In a pair of significant decisions Monday, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a 15-week ban on abortion in the state while also allowing a proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution to appear on the November ballot.

[snip]

In its ruling Monday, the court’s justices wrote in a majority opinion, “Consistent with longstanding principles of judicial deference to legislative enactments, we conclude there is no basis under the Privacy Clause to invalidate” the 15-week statute.

They added that Planned Parenthood, the plaintiff, “cannot overcome the presumption of constitutionality and is unable to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the 15-week ban is unconstitutional.”

As a result, the justices concluded, the “six-week ban will take effect in thirty days.”

At the same time, their ruling on the proposed amendment will allow Florida voters to effectively decide whether to keep the six-week ban in effect.

In allowing the proposed amendment to appear in November, the justices embraced a straightforward interpretation of their responsibility under the law in approving ballot measures: making sure the proposed language isn’t confusing, unclear or misleading and making sure it doesn’t cover more than one subject.

“We approve the proposed amendment for placement on the ballot,” the justices wrote in their opinion.

NBC News.com. 04/01/2024.

Lowering Health Care Costs Tweet

From Tuesday…

From Wednesday…

President Biden Delivers Remarks on Lowering Health Care Costs for Americans @11:00 a.m. D.C., time:


Candid Conversation Tweet

From Tuesday

Show More =’s I emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea, and raised concerns over the PRC’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base, their unfair trade policies, and economic and technological practices that harm American workers and families. I look forward to responsibly managing our relationship in the weeks and months ahead.

From the White House…

04/02/2024:

Readout of President Joe Biden’s Call with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China:

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  The call follows the two leaders’ meeting in Woodside, California in November 2023.  The two leaders held a candid and constructive discussion on a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including areas of cooperation and areas of difference.  They reviewed and encouraged progress on key issues discussed at the Woodside Summit, including counternarcotics cooperation, ongoing military-to-military communication, talks to address AI-related risks, and continuing efforts on climate change and people-to-people exchanges.
 
President Biden emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.  He raised concerns over the PRC’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base and its impact on European and transatlantic security, and he emphasized the United States’ enduring commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.  President Biden also raised continued concerns about the PRC’s unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices, which harm American workers and families.  The President emphasized that the United States will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment. The two leaders welcomed ongoing efforts to maintain open channels of communication and responsibly manage the relationship through high-level diplomacy and working-level consultations in the weeks and months ahead, including during upcoming visits by Secretary Yellen and Secretary Blinken.

Readout of President Joe Biden’s Call with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China. 04/02/2024.

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said in Tuesday’s press briefing:

As you all know, President Biden spoke by phone today with President Xi — Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China.  The purpose of the call was to build on the two leaders’ meeting in Woodside, California, back in November of last year.

Over the course of about an hour and 45 minutes, the two leaders held a candid and constructive discussion on a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including areas of cooperation and areas of differences.  They encouraged continued progress on issues discussed at the Woodside Summit, including counternarcotics cooperation, ongoing military-to-military communications, talks to address artificial-intelligence-related risks, and continuing efforts on climate change and people-to-people exchanges.

President Biden also emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and he reaffirmed the importance of the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

He raised concerns over the PRC’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base and its impact on European and transatlantic security.  And he emphasized that the United States’s — he emphasized the U.S.’s enduring commitment to the complete denu- — denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

President Biden also raised continued concerns about the PRC’s unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices, which harm American workers and families. 

President Biden also emphasized that the United States will continue to take necessary action to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment.

The President also repeated his call for China to release U.S. citizens who are wrongfully detained or under exit bans.

Now, we believe that there is no substitute for regular communication at the leader level to effectively manage this complex and often tense bilateral relationship, and both presidents agreed to pick up the phone and speak when needed. 

Following the leaders’ call, we will continue to advance our interests through Cabinet-level diplomacy, including visits to China by Secretary of the Treasury Yellen and in coming days — I’m sorry, in coming days — and by Secretary Blinken in coming weeks.

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby. 04/02/2024.

America Lost a Hero Tweet

From Tuesday…

Show More =’s Today, our hearts are with those who knew him and served with him over the years. May God bless and keep them.

Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of Lou Conter:

This week, America lost a hero.

On December 7, 1941, Lou Conter was serving on the U.S.S. Arizona, stationed on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i. His job was quartermaster, assisting with the battleship’s navigation. He had just turned 20 years old.

When Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor began that morning, the Arizona was hit by several armor-piercing bombs. One hit the ship’s magazine, where more than a million pounds of gunpowder were stored. The battleship exploded.

Lou, miraculously, was uninjured. He quickly got to work helping survivors, and he spent the next several days helping to put out fires and recover bodies. In the end, 1,177 officers and crewmen of the U.S.S. Arizona were killed. Fewer than 100 of the people on board that day survived.

Lou Conter’s service to his country didn’t end there. He became a Naval pilot, flying hundreds of combat missions in World War II and dozens in the Korean War. He also became the Navy’s very first SERE officer, training airmen in critical skills – Survive, Evade, Resist, and Escape – in case they were shot down or captured. By the time he retired from the military, he had earned the rank of lieutenant commander. And he never forgot all the brave men he served with on board the Arizona. Until he was nearly 100 years old, he attended annual memorial services at Pearl Harbor.

When Lou passed away on Monday at the age of 102, America said farewell to the last known survivor of the U.S.S. Arizona.

The women and men who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces are patriots in the highest sense. Like Lou, they risk their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans. Like Lou, they bravely undertake dangerous missions to defend our nation’s freedom and future. Like Lou, they believe deeply in their duty to their country and their fellow service members and will go to the ends of the earth to fulfill that duty. Our nation owes them all a debt of gratitude we can never repay.

Today, our hearts are with Lou Conter’s family and friends, and all those he served with over the years, including his shipmates on the U.S.S. Arizona. May God bless and keep them.

Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of Lou Conter. 04/02/2024.

From AP News:

Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102.

Conter passed away on Monday at his home in Grass Valley, California, following congestive heart failure, his daughter, Louann Daley said, adding she was beside him along with two of her brothers, James and Jeff.

[snip]

In 1943, he and his crew where shot down in waters near New Guinea and had to avoid sharks. A sailor expressed doubt they would survive, to which Conter replied, “baloney.”

“Don’t ever panic in any situation. Survive is the first thing you tell them. Don’t panic or you’re dead,” he said. They were quiet and treaded water until another plane came hours later and dropped them a lifeboat.

[snip]

Conter had been getting weaker and weaker in recent months and was hospitalized for 10 days in February, his daughter said. He had been in hospice since returning home.

He told his family he loved them, thanked them for being with him and taking care of him at home.

“I’m glad he’s at peace. I’m glad he didn’t suffer. I know when he transitioned over, he had so many people there waiting for him – his wife Val, who he loved dearly,” Daley said.

[snip]

Though many treated the shrinking group of Pearl Harbor survivors as heroes, Conter refused the label.

“The 2,403 men that died are the heroes. And we’ve got to honor them ahead of everybody else. And I’ve said that every time, and I think it should be stressed,” Conter told The Associated Press in a 2022 interview at his California home.

AP News.com. 04/01/2024.

NPR.org also posted a more detailed look at Lou Conter’s life.

May he rest in peace.

Heartbroken by the Deaths of Humanitarian Workers

From Tuesday…

Statement from President Joe Biden on the Death of World Central Kitchen Workers in Gaza:

I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday. They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy.

Israel has pledged to conduct a thorough investigation into why the aid workers’ vehicles were hit by airstrikes. That investigation must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public. 

Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult – because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians. The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties. 

The United States will continue to do all we can to deliver humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, through all available means. I will continue to press Israel to do more to facilitate that aid. And we are pushing hard for an immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal. I have a team in Cairo working on this right now.

Earlier today, I spoke with my friend Chef José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, to convey my deepest condolences for the deaths of these courageous aid workers and to express my continued support for his and his team’s relentless and heroic efforts to get food to hungry people around the globe. 

May God bless the humanitarian workers killed yesterday and comfort their families and loved ones in their grief.

Statement from President Joe Biden on the Death of World Central Kitchen Workers in Gaza. 04/02/2024.

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said in Tuesday’s press briefing:

Now, if I could just — as Karine noted, just turn briefly to events in the Middle East.  We were outraged to learn of an IDF strike that killed a number of civilian humanitarian workers yesterday from the World Central Kitchen, which has been relentless in working to get food to those who are hungry in Gaza and, quite frankly, around the world.

We send our deepest condolences to their families and loved ones.

We’ve seen the comments from Prime Minister Netanyahu and from the Israeli Defense Forces about their commitment to conduct an investigation.  As we understand it, a preliminary investigation has been completed today and presented to the Army Chief of Staff, and we’ll — we’ll obviously look to see what they — what they discover in this preliminary one.

But we expect a broader investigation to be conducted and to be done so in a swift and comprehensive manner.  We hope that those findings will be made public and that there is appropriate accountability held.

But — I’m sorry.  More than 200 aid workers have been killed in this conflict, making it one of the worst for aid workers in recent history.  This incident is emblematic of a larger problem and evidence of why distribution of aid in Gaza has been so challenging.

But what — beyond the strike, what is clear is that the IDF must do much more — must do — must do much more to improve deconfliction processes so that civilians and humanitarian aid workers are protected. 

The U.S. will continue to press Israel to do more as well to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers.  And we’ll continue to do all we can to deliver this assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby. 04/02/2024.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said via Twitter…

Show More =’s Israel is fully committed to enabling humanitarian aid to reach the civilian population in Gaza and we will do everything in our power to ensure that such tragedies do not occur in the future.

The Washington Post (gift link) on Wednesday said; Several humanitarian groups said Tuesday that they would suspend their operations in Gaza after seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed in an Israeli strike, threatening already precarious deliveries to the aid-starved enclave.

They added; The organization said the team was traveling in a “deconflicted zone” in two armored cars with the WCK logo branded on the roof, to make them clearly identifiable from the air, and a third vehicle. Images from the scene showed a blackened hole on the roof of one of the vehicles, puncturing the nonprofit’s logo.

They went on to say:

Netanyahu described the incident as “tragic.”

“We are investigating the matter fully, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything possible to prevent this from happening again,” he said.

The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday evening that according to a preliminary inquiry, Monday’s strike was the result of a “misidentification — at night during a war in very complex conditions.” IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi called the incident a “grave mistake” and said the strike “was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers.”

Washington Post (gift link). 04/03/2024.

World Central Kitchen released the names of those killed in Gaza:


“New” from the White House

04/02/2024:

04/03/2024:

This is an Open Thread.

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About Tiff 2562 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.