President Joe Biden tried to avoid insisting on his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, while giving a public sales presentation for Congress to quickly approve his massive coronavirus relief bill.
“I’m tired of talking about Donald Trump. I don’t want to talk about him anymore,” said Biden Tuesday night during a meeting at CNN’s City Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“For four years, all that has been in the news is Trump,” said Biden at another time. “In the next four years, I want to make sure that the news is from the American people.”
Biden’s visit to Badger State, his first official trip as president, came as House Democrats were preparing to approve Covid’s $ 1.9 trillion aid package before the end of February.
The president, peppered with questions from the small socially distant crowd of Republicans, Democrats and independents, offered a cautiously optimistic timetable for when he believes the United States can go back to normal.
“A year from now, I think there will be significantly less people having to be socially distant, having to wear a mask, but we don’t know,” said Biden, being careful to “promise nothing too much here.”
He also emphasized the importance of reopening schools, a major political obstacle in the midst of the pandemic.
Biden backed down in statements last week from press secretary Jen Psaki, who said the goal for the president’s first 100 days in office was to open most of the kindergarten to eighth grade schools at least one day a week.
“No, this is not true. It has been reported. This is not true,” said Biden at the city hall. “The goal will be five days a week.”
Biden, who has been pressing Americans to get vaccinated, also said he believed teachers should be promoted “in the ranks” to vaccination priority.
When Biden felt compelled to discuss how the previous government handled the pandemic, he seemed reluctant to mention Trump by name.
“We inherited a circumstance,” said Biden, in which “there were not many vaccinators … [and] there was very little federal guidance “to help Americans figure out how to get vaccinated.
“Think about what we didn’t do” from the moment Covid hit the US coast, said Biden. “We lost a lot of time.”
At one point, Biden referred to Trump as “the ex-guy”.
“You had the ex-guy saying, ‘Well, you know, let’s just open things up and that’s all we need to do.’ We said no, you have to deal with the disease before making the economy work, “said Biden.
“The fact is that now the economy has to be dealt with,” he said, emphasizing the need to increase unemployment insurance during the pandemic.
From his unity-centered inaugural address to his series of executive actions in the first week aimed at reversing the policies of the previous government, Biden made clear his desire to push the nation away from the Trump era.
But the city hall came just three days after the completion of Trump’s second unprecedented impeachment trial. Trump was acquitted for an article inciting the deadly Capitol riot on January 6.
Biden, anxious to get Republican support for Covid’s relief efforts, hesitated when asked if he agreed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., That the Republicans who voted to acquit Trump were “cowards”.
“I’m not going to name any names,” said Biden. “Look, I- for four years, all that has been in the news is Trump. For the next four years, I want to make sure that the news is from the American people.”
“I’m tired of talking about Trump,” he added through a round of applause from the socially distant audience.