The journalists gathered in the White House press room were waiting this Friday, like every day, for the presidential spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, to arrive for the daily press conference. When the door opened, however, the one who appeared was the president, Joe Biden. It was the first time he appeared in the press room since he became president. Biden has arrived to boast about his economic management after publishing very good employment data that has far exceeded expectations, but then he has admitted questions. In his responses, he has indicated that he is not sure that the elections on November 5 will take place peacefully. And when asked if he believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is delaying a possible peace agreement to try to influence the outcome of the presidential elections, he answered briefly: “I don’t know.”
“Hello friends. I’m Joe Biden. Welcome to the pool,” he joked upon arriving. The scene has been so unexpected and unusual that many of the journalists have taken out their cell phones to photograph or record the president.
In the brief question period, Biden was asked to clarify some somewhat misleading comments he made about the possibility of Israel attacking Iranian oil facilities, which caused the price of crude oil to rise. “The Israelis have not finalized what they are going to do in terms of an attack that is under discussion. If I were in your place, I would be thinking about other alternatives,” he replied.
They then pointed out a few words from Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, which had indicated the possibility that the Israeli Government will not sign any diplomatic agreement before the elections, potentially to try to influence the outcome of the presidential elections. “No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None, none. And I think Bibi should remember that. And if he is trying to influence the elections, I don’t know, but I don’t count on it,” he said.
Regarding the possible retaliation against Iran for this week’s missile launch, he indicated that the teams of both countries are in permanent contact, both at the diplomatic and military levels. ”They are not going to make a decision immediately, so we are going to wait,” he explained. “I guess when they make a decision about how they are going to respond, then we will have a discussion,” he added.
Regarding whether the November presidential elections are going to be free, fair and peaceful, he has answered in parts. “They are two separate questions. I trust that they are free and fair. I don’t know if they will be peaceful. The things that Trump has said and the things he said last time, when he didn’t like the outcome of the election, were very dangerous. Have you noticed that the Republican vice presidential candidate has not said that he will accept the outcome of the election? Did you accept the result of the last elections? So I’m worried about what they’re going to do,” he responded.
Economic successes
Biden, in fact, had appeared to vindicate his economic policy. High inflation during his tenure eroded popularity, although it is now almost under control. Economic growth, employment, investment, energy production and other major variables have done well, but they have been overshadowed by prices and interest rates. Now that the Federal Reserve has begun to lower the price of money and his presidency is ending, he has come out to claim victory.
“In the last two days we have had very good news about the American economy,” Biden began, highlighting the agreement between dockworkers and employers to keep the ports on the East coast and the Gulf of Mexico open and the creation of 254,000 jobs. in December. With this, employment has been created uninterruptedly in the accumulated 45 months of his presidency, a record of 16 million jobs.
“Our economy has grown 10% under my administration, unemployment has reached the lowest level in 50 years. We were also told that inflation could not go down without massive job losses or sending the economy into an economic recession. Once again, the outside experts were wrong. Inflation has gone down. Wages have risen faster than prices. Interest rates have fallen. A record 19 million new business creation applications have been filed and the stock market continues to reach new heights,” he boasted of his achievements.
“From the beginning, we were told over and over again that the policies we were carrying out, that we presented, were not going to work, but rather make things worse,” Biden recalled, “but we have proven them wrong.” “We were told that our American Rescue Plan was too big and would crowd out private investment. “We proved them wrong, we vaccinated a nation and we got immediate economic relief for people in need,” he explained.
The first question was about statements by Republican Senator Marco Rubio in which he maintained that the employment data was false. “If you look, when Republicans don’t like something, MAGA [por el lema de Trump]They say it’s fake. The employment figures are real,” he replied.
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