The New York Times
Time is everything, says Biden, and ‘politics is the art of the possible’
WASHINGTON – He reflected on his reputation as a “nice guy” and “decent man”. He talked about how his great-grandfather left the Irish Sea to make the difficult journey to America. He noted that “politics is the art of the possible”. In his first formal press conference since taking office, President Joe Biden offered a first glimpse of the man who inhabits the Oval Office and how he has been approaching the presidency so far. Unlike President Donald Trump’s explosive-tempered explosions or President Barack Obama’s extended professorial cool responses, Biden was a sober political veteran, comfortable with thinking out loud, speaking in person and in conversation, and showing occasional impatience in the face of a room full of reporters. When he received a question he didn’t like, as he was expected to run in 2024 against Trump, he shrugged: “I don’t know where you guys come from, man.” But Biden said he hopes to run again, with Vice President Kamala Harris at his side. Subscribe to the New York Times newsletter The Morning After nearly four decades in politics, including eight years as vice president, he turned out to be a student at the office. “It is a matter of time,” he said when asked about his legislative priorities. “As you all observed, successful presidents who are better than me have been successful largely because they know how to time what they are doing. Part. Decide priorities. What needs to be done. “To that end, he cited his $ 3 trillion infrastructure bill as” the next big thing. “And when asked why he didn’t push to abolish the Senate obstruction, which requires 60 votes to pass most of the legislation and what Biden called a relic of the Jim Crow era, he said simply that “a successful electoral policy is the art of the possible” – and that he wanted to see if he could change the obstruction first. he also remembered the Senate of yesteryear, as he has done several times as president: “In the past you had to stay there and talk and talk and talk and talk until you pass out. And guess what, people got tired of talking.” their own opinions can sometimes sound outdated. “I believe we should return to a position in the obstruction that existed only when I came to the United States Senate 120 years ago,” he said. increase ar the ability to temporarily care for the thousands of migrant children who arrive at the southwest border without legal guardians. He also pointed to the zero-tolerance policies enacted by Trump, saying his government is trying to “put into practice what has been dismantled”. “I like to think I’m a nice guy,” said Biden. “But not that. It’s because of what happened.” At times, he was just as surprised – “I think I should be flattered,” he replied when pressed about his “moral” approach to stopping families on the border – and exasperated. it’s a serious issue, right? Is it acceptable to me? Come on, “said Biden when asked if the state of the Customs and Border Protection facilities in Texas, where the children are being temporarily housed, was acceptable to him. Other times, he was solicitous with reporters. “Am I giving you a very long answer?” he asked Yamiche Alcindor of PBS NewsHour. “If you don’t want the details – I don’t know how many details you want about immigration. Maybe I’ll stop there. “He spoke of immigration in personal terms, as the last resort of desperate people looking for a new life in the United States. When families decide to leave Mexico or Guatemala, the president said, they do not say:” I had a great idea : are we going to sell everything we have, give it to a coyote, make him take our children across the border to a desert where they don’t speak the language, won’t it be fun? “Biden added:” This is not how it happens. People don’t want to leave. When my great-grandfather entered a coffin ship in the Irish Sea, the expectation that he would live long enough on that ship to reach the United States of America? They left because of what the British were doing. They were in real, real trouble. They didn’t want to leave. But they had no choice. So, you have – we cannot – I cannot guarantee that we will solve everything. But I can guarantee that we can make everything better. We can make it better. The president’s appearance came after weeks of requests from reporters and speculation about why the White House was delaying the decision to call him a press conference. Biden’s advisers said the plan was to pass the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package into law before insuring it. As he answered questions for more than an hour, the president also did little to feed the narrative being drawn up by conservative media that he has no mental facilities. He seemed well prepared and sure of his facts, although he referred to the “North China Sea”, which does not exist. During the press conference, a limited number of journalists were allowed to enter the room. Those who attended wore masks and sat 2 meters away to obey the rules of social distance. Biden called reporters by their first name, on a list previously drawn up by his team. In that sense, it was another return to normality, after four years of free press conferences for all and defiant of Trump’s facts. In one, Trump mocked a reporter for wearing what he called “the biggest mask I think I’ve ever seen” and in another he said that injecting disinfectants into the human body could help fight the coronavirus. Reporters shouted to be heard and Trump seemed to savor the chaos. Biden’s performance, by contrast, was relatively calm. “It is really a great relief after four years, when each presidential press conference was a cataclysmic event,” said Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist. She said Biden remained true to the message and “empathized in everything he does”. “Biden did what he needed to do,” said David Axelrod, a former Obama adviser. “He spurred the progress of the virus at the top, avoided difficult questions at the border and obstruction and generally refrained from making unwanted news.” It is unclear where Biden will fit in terms of regularly approaching the news media in a formal setting. Trump gave 44 formal press conferences during his presidency, although he regularly had long question and answer sessions with reporters during Oval Office events or before crossing the White House lawn to board Marine One. Obama held 65 press conferences, according to data compiled by The American Presidency Project, which accompanies these solo performances. Biden also left a series of open questions about some of the most controversial problems facing his government. He did not say when he plans to allow reporters to see conditions at the detention facilities for migrants along the US-Mexico border. He did not commit to a timetable for withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan. And he repeatedly refused to say whether he would try to change the way the Senate works. At those times, Biden, a politician who only recently embraced the art of restraint, seemed aware of the dangers of making promises to a room full of reporters. “I am not going to expose a strategy to the whole world,” he said, “and you, now.” This article was originally published in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company