WASHINGTON — Out of all the low bars President Joe Biden has cleared over the past year — “he’s going to stumble at the debate,” “he won’t get out of his basement,” 100 million shots in 100 days — Thursday’s White House news conference might have been the lowest yet.
The reason: After fewer than 100 days in office, Biden is still being compared, explicitly and implicitly, to his predecessor.
Biden made little news at the press conference — other than revising his goal to 200 million shots in 100 days, opening the door to possibly eliminating the filibuster and saying that his next agenda item is on infrastructure.
He largely stayed on message, using a question on immigration/guns/climate change and turning it back to the coronavirus. (“The most urgent problem facing the American people, I stated from the outset, was Covid-19 and the economic dislocation for millions and millions of Americans. And so that’s why I put all my focus in the beginning.”)
And he defended himself on complicated topics like the situation at the border — without turning to insults or trying to steer clear of difficult lines of questioning. “Twenty-eight percent increase in children to the border in my administration; 31 percent in the last year of — in 2019, before the pandemic, in the Trump administration. It happens every single, solitary year.” (Here’s what factually right and wrong about those numbers.)
That’s in sharp contrast to his predecessor, who at his first formal press conference in Feb. 2017:
- Falsely claimed he won “the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan.”
- oasted that no previous president — not even FDR — “has done what we’ve done” in his early days in office.
- Attacked the media, saying: “The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice.”
This is a large part of the honeymoon that new presidents get; their performances get judged against their most recent predecessor.
But that changes the longer they’re in office.
And that’s when the bar starts getting higher.
Georgia passes sweeping law placing restrictions on voting
Also at yesterday’s news conference, Biden assailed GOP-sponsored legislation across the country that would curb voting rights and access.
“What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick,” he said. “This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”
And just hours later, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation into law in Georgia that would, per NBC’s Jane Timm:
- Require ID for mail-in voting.
- Make it illegal to give water and food to voters waiting in law.
- Allow the state Election Board to take over county election administration.
- End most early voting at 5:00 p.m. ET.
Of course, this new law comes after Georgia Republicans lost the state in November’s presidential election, and after they lost two Senate runoffs in January.
And it comes after Trump’s false claims that there was fraud and widespread irregularities in the election.
As we put it earlier this month: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try — to change how the contest is conducted.
Tweet of the day
Data Download: The numbers you need to know today
$1.6 billion: The price tag on the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.
More than 60: The number of Asian-American former officials who signed a bipartisan letter condemning anti-AAPI violence and calling for action to address it.
At least 5: The number of people killed by deadly tornadoes across Alabama yesterday
Now more than 100: The continuing death toll from the winter storm in Texas last month.
30,202,648: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 65,556 more than yesterday morning.)
549,235: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far, per the most recent data from NBC News. (That’s 1,317 more than yesterday morning.)
133,305,295: Number of vaccine doses administered in the U.S.
13.5 percent: The share of Americans who are fully vaccinated
34: The number of days left for Biden to reach his 100-day vaccination goal.
Talking policy with Benjy
Are Democrats going to pass anything else? There are essentially two procedural tracks for the Democratic agenda right now, both of which run through a small number of moderates, especially Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va. and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
One track involves legislation that can pass only if the filibuster is eliminated or changed. The focal point of that effort is voting rights, where Democrats are advancing a sweeping bill that also addresses campaign finance, government ethics and gerrymandering. The filibuster also likely stands in the way of Democratic priorities on guns, immigration, and labor.
There’s considerable action on this front. Biden took his most aggressive stance yet in discussing filibuster changes at his press conference. Two of the remaining moderate holdouts, Senators Angus King, I-Maine and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. signaled their likely support for tweaking the filibuster. Manchin has hinted he’s open to filibuster reforms, but not exactly what kind. He also put forward criteria for a narrower voting rights bill on Thursday, which activists still found encouraging, but also emphasized finding bipartisan agreement, which is unlikely.
The second track involves Biden’s economic agenda, much of which can likely pass through reconciliation with only 50 votes. The White House is reportedly weighing $3 trillion in investments in infrastructure, clean energy, child care, and community college, among other areas, and a variety of taxes on corporations, wealthy investors, and high incomes to pay for it.
The news there also revolves around Manchin, who wants an “enormous” infrastructure package, but one that’s bipartisan and at least partially offset with taxes or spending cuts. The White House is considering whether they might break up their plan so they can offer to work with the GOP on infrastructure spending in one bill and then pass more progressive priorities (and likely any tax increases) through reconciliation.
One theme worth watching: Democrats considered swing votes on these issues are putting pressure on the GOP to take the next step. Manchin has signaled he’ll support a partisan infrastructure bill via reconciliation if Republicans won’t play ball. King hinted in an op-ed this week that his GOP colleagues could save the filibuster by showing they can produce bipartisan deals on key issues like immigration.
Programming Note
Our morning First Read newsletter will be taking a break next week, but we’ll be back on Monday, April 5.
ICYMI: What else is happening in the world
A Democratic state representative in Georgia was arrested after knocking on the door of Gov. Kemp’s statehouse office as he signed the bill into law.
Biden said yesterday that an influx of migrant children happens at the border every year. Here’s what’s right and wrong about that claim.
Experts say there’s a fundamental problem with U.S. immigration laws — they’re not adapted when they need to be.
Parler says it warned the FBI in advance of “specific threats of violence” on the Capitol.
Far-right extremists have a new agenda — vaccination conspiracy theories.
POLITICO gets seven GOP senators on the record saying they’ve spoken to Biden recently and he remains mentally sharp.
Yet more trouble for Andrew Cuomo: A health industry executive with close ties to the governor also received early hard-to-get coronavirus testing.
