President Biden holds news conference to mark one year in office

President Biden marked his first year in office with an address and news conference from the White House.

Biden highlighted his administration’s accomplishments as well as the challenges that lie ahead as many priorities in his agenda remain stalled, including the Build Back Better Act and voting rights legislation.

The President said he thinks his report card going into the midterms is “pretty good,” and is confident his administration will be able to sign into law “good chunks” of his agenda.

Biden took questions from reporters and spoke for more than 90 minutes.

Here are the key take aways:

The White House has issued a high-level clarification following President Biden’s remarks suggesting potential disunity within NATO over how to respond in the event of a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine.

“President Biden has been clear with the Russian President: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our Allies,” said press secretary Jen Psaki in a statement.

Psaki continued by noting that the president “knows from long experience that the Russians have an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks and paramilitary tactics.”

Additionally, the statement continued with Psaki adding that Biden “affirmed today that those acts of Russian aggression will be met with a decisive, reciprocal, and united response.”

Earlier Wednesday: As part of a live press conference marking his first full year in office, Biden intimated that Western nations may not be fully aligned on how to react should Russia commit a lesser violation. 

“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do,” Biden told reporters at an East Room news conference. “But if they actually do what they’re capable of doing with the forces amassed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine.”

President Biden said one thing that has been made clear to him is the different role he now plays as President, opposed to his decades of service in the US Senate. 

“One of the things that I do think that has been made clear to me, speaking of polling, is the public doesn’t want me to be the President-senator. They want me to be the President, and let senators be senators,” Biden said during a news conference to mark his first year in office. 

“And so, I’ve made many mistakes I’m sure, if I’ve made a mistake, I’m used to negotiating to get things done. And I’ve been, in the past, relatively successful at it in the United States Senate, even as vice president. But I think that role as president is a different role,” he added. 

President Biden said Wednesday that he was unsure that the child tax credit could pass in a scaled-back version of his Build Back Better agenda, a key provision Democrats have sought to extend that lacks support from moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. 

Earlier in the news conference, Biden expressed openness to splitting the Build Back Better bill into smaller pieces or “big chunks” that could pass, but notably did not mention the child tax credit.

When asked whether that would have to wait, Biden said it was one of two major priorities he campaigned on that he was unsure he could get in a scaled-back package.

“There’s two really big components that I feel strongly about that I’m not sure I can get in the package. One is the child care tax credit. The other is help for the cost of community colleges. They are massive things that I have run on and I care a great deal about,” he said. 

Some context: Eligible American families received monthly payments of up to $300 per child from July 2021 until they expired in December 2021.

Manchin had expressed opposition to the provision, citing the cost of the sweeping bill to expand the social safety net. 

President Biden defended his record on voting rights amid criticism that he did not prioritize election reform earlier in his administration.

“I started on the voting right issues long, long ago,” Biden said at a news conference at the White House to mark his first year in office. “That’s what got me involved with politics in the first place.”

“I’m sure there are those who are saying that, why didn’t Biden push [the] John Lewis bill as hard as he pushed it the last month,” Biden said. “Why didn’t he push it six months ago as hard as he did now? The fact is that there is – there’s a timing that is not of one’s own choice. It’s dictated by events happening in country and around the world as to what the focus is,” he added.

Biden went on to say that he hasn’t left Washington enough in the last few months to promote his agenda to the American people.

“I think that’s a problem that is my own making, by not communicating as much as I should have,” he said.

A Ukrainian official told CNN’s Matthew Chance he is “shocked that the US President Biden would distinguish between incursion and invasion” and suggest that a minor incursion would not trigger sanctions but an invasion would. 

“This gives the green light to Putin to enter Ukraine at his pleasure,” the official added.

During his news conference marking one year in office, Biden suggested a “minor incursion” by Russia would elicit a lesser response than a full-scale invasion of the country.

The Ukrainian official added he’d never heard any nuance like this from the US administration before. 

“Kyiv is stunned,” he added, referring to the Ukrainian government.

President Biden says he wants to pierce the White House bubble during his second year in office.

He told CNN during the news conference that after containing a series of crises, he wants to solicit more outside advice and speak to more people outside the building.

“I’m satisfied with the team,” Biden said, but went on to list three things he hopes to do differently in 2022.

“Number one, out of this place more often,” he said. “I’m going to go out and talk to the public. I’m going to do public fora. I’m going to interface with them. I’m going to make the case of what we’ve already done, why it’s important and what we’ll do, what will happen if they support what else I want to do.”

Biden has traveled less often than his predecessors due to being restrained by the pandemic. He has visited comparatively fewer states and has only been outside the US twice.

Biden said his second change would be consulting a wider range of advice from people outside the White House.

“I am bringing in more and more now that I have time,” he said, noting he works as much as 14 hours a day. “Now that certain big chunks have been put in place and we know the direction, I’m also going to be out there seeking the more advice of experts outside from academia to editorial writers to think tanks, and I’m bringing them in, just like I did early on bringing in presidential historians to get their perspective on what we should be doing. Seeking more input. More information. More constructive criticism about what I should and shouldn’t be doing.”

Biden said his third change would be engaging more with Democrats during the midterm elections.

“I’m going to be deeply involved in these off-year elections,” he said. “We’re going to be raising a lot of money. We’re going to be out there making sure that we’re helping all those candidates and scores of them already asked me to come in and campaign with them to go out and make the case in plain simple language as to what it is we have done, what we want to do and why we think it’s important.”

As President Biden held a news conference to tout his administration’s achievements during his first year in office, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin criticized his party over their push to end the filibuster in order to advance legislation on voting rights.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Manchin said he was speaking out against “a great misleading of the American people.”

“Allowing one party to exert complete control in the Senate with only a simple majority will only pour fuel on the fire of political whiplash and dysfunction that is tearing this nation apart,” Manchin said. “You don’t have to look very far to see how we’re tearing ourselves apart. Every part of this country, people are divided now.” 

The West Virginia Democrat has repeatedly said he will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster, which sets a 60-vote threshold to pass most legislation, creating an obstacle for his party as Senate Democrats push for a rules change.

At the same time, Biden was asked about voting rights, specifically about Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney’s recent remarks, attacking the White House for keeping Republicans out of discussions over election reform.

“The fact is that I do think that Mitt is a serious guy,” Biden said. “I think we can get things done. I predict that we’ll get something done on the electoral reform side of this.”

He continued, “But rather judge what we’ll get done and not get done, all I can say is I’ll continue to make the case why it’s so important to not turn electoral process over to political persons set up to change the outcome of elections.”

Some background: The Senate is on track to hold a vote Wednesday evening to attempt to break a GOP filibuster on voting legislation that combines key provisions of two bills: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Debate for the legislative package is under way Wednesday afternoon, and a vote is expected around 6:30 p.m. ET.

President Biden defended the US withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly five months later.

“Raise your hand if you think anyone was going to be able to unify Afghanistan under one single government? It’s been the graveyard of empires for a solid reason: It is not susceptible to unity,” Biden said during today’s news conference.

Citing the weekly spending of nearly one billion dollars to keep American forces in the state, Biden noted what he called no possibility at a peaceful resolution.

“The question was, do I continue to spend that much money per week in the state of Afghanistan knowing that the idea that being able to succeed, other than sending more body bags back home, is highly, highly unusual,” he said.

“There is no way to get out of Afghanistan after 20 years easily. Not possible, no matter when you did it. And I make no apologies for what I did,” the President said.

Biden did, however, express empathy for the lives lost amid the withdrawal.

“I have a great concern for the women and men who were blown up on the line at the airport by a terrorist attack against them,” he said.

Placing blame on previous administrations, Biden continued to defend the late August operation.

“Had we not gotten out, the acknowledgment is we’d be putting a lot more forces in … do I feel badly [about] what’s happening as a consequence of the incompetence of the Taliban? Yes, I do,” Biden said, adding that there are “a whole range of things around the world, that we can’t solve every problem. And so I don’t view that as a competence issue.”

President Biden lamented his predecessor’s hold on the Republican Party as his sweeping domestic agenda and election reform priorities remain stalled in Congress with no path forward. 

Without naming former President Trump, Biden railed against Trump’s threats to support primary opponents for politicians who take positions Trump views as disloyal.

“You ever think one man out of office could intimidate an entire party where they’re unwilling to take any vote contrary to what he thinks he should be taken for fear of being defeated in the primary?” Biden asked rhetorically during today’s news conference.

Biden said that “five Republican senators” have expressed to him that they would be in support of legislation he endorses, but they are afraid of getting defeated in a primary.

“We’ve gotta break that. It’s gotta change,” Biden said.

When asked to name those five Republicans, Biden declined to say.

Some context: Biden’s response comes after he made clear that he did not expect the level of “stalwart” Republican obstruction to his agenda during his first year in office, saying he would spend more time directly making his case to the American people going forward. 

President Biden didn’t hesitate when asked if he was satisfied with Vice President Kamala Harris’ work on voting rights and if she would be his running mate in 2024.

“Yes, and yes,” Biden fired back to the question.

“She’s going to be my running mate, number one. And number two, I did put her in charge [of voting rights]. I think she’s doing a good job,” he added.

President Biden was asked about comments from Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell that the midterm elections are going to be a report card on Biden’s progress on inflation, border security and standing up to Russia. 

“I think the report card is going to look pretty good,” Biden responded.

Biden continued: “I actually like Mitch Mcconnell. We like one another but he has one straightforward objective. Make sure that there’s nothing I do that makes me look good … with the public at large.” 

Biden said he’s a “big boy” and he’s “happy to debate and have a referendum on how I handled the economy” and whether he’s made “progress.” 

“I think that the fundamental question is, what’s Mitch for? What’s he for on immigration? What’s he for? What’s he proposing?” Biden added. “What’s he for dealing with Russia? … What’s he for on these things? What are they for? So everything is a choice.”

President Biden said that in order to get his Build Back Better agenda passed, he will have to “break it up” and get as much of it through as possible and “come back and fight for the rest later.” 

“It’s clear to me that we’re gonna have to probably break it up,” Biden acknowledged for the first time since the bill stalled to a halt in December.

Biden said it’s “clear” he would be able to get support on several issues in the bill, including the $500 billion dollars for energy and environmental issues.

Biden also said he knew that there are things in the bill that Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema support, including early education and “strong support for the number in which to pay for this proposal.”

“Get as much as we can now,” Biden said.

President Biden predicted a Russian invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday, citing existential concerns by the country’s President Vladimir Putin, even as he warned of significant economic consequences when such an incursion occurs. 

But he suggested a “minor incursion” would elicit a lesser response than a full-scale invasion of the country.

Biden’s prediction of an invasion is the firmest acknowledgment to date the United States fully expects Putin to move after amassing 100,000 troops along the Ukraine border.

“I’m not so sure he is certain what he is going to do. My guess is he will move in. He has to do something,” Biden said, describing a leader searching for relevance in a post-Soviet world: “He is trying to find his place in the world between China and the West.”

After speaking with Putin twice last month, Biden said he believed his Russian counterpart had a good understanding of the economic sanctions he was preparing to enact.

“He’s never seen sanctions like the ones I promised will be imposed if he moves, number one,” he said, adding the level of punishment would depend on what Russia’s invasion looks like: “It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.”

 “But if they actually do what they’re capable of doing with the forces amassed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine. And that our allies and partners are ready to impose severe cost and significant harm on Russia and the Russian economy,” he said.

President Biden conceded Wednesday that he did not reach out to moderate Republicans in his pursuit of passing voting rights legislation.

“I was trying to make sure we got everybody on the same page in my party on this score,” Biden said during a news conference at the White House. “And I didn’t call many Republicans at all.”

Biden was asked specifically about Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney’s recent remarks, slamming the White House for keeping Republicans out of discussions over election reform.

“The fact is that I do think that Mitt is a serious guy,” Biden said. “I think we can get things done. I predict that we’ll get something done on the electoral reform side of this.”

He continued: “But rather judge what we’ll get done and not get done, all I can say is I’ll continue to make the case why it’s so important to not turn electoral process over to political persons set up to change the outcome of elections.”

President Biden acknowledged Americans are struggling with the high cost of living and threw his weight behind the Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight inflation 

“We need to get inflation under control,” Biden said during his opening remarks Wednesday. 

Biden pointed out that price stability is the responsibility of the Fed.

“The critical job of making sure elevated prices don’t become entrenched rests with the Federal Reserve, which has a dual mandate: full employment and stable prices,” Biden said. 

Biden noted that Americans are seeing rapid price increases at grocery stores, at the gas pumps and elsewhere.  

“Given the strength of our economy and pace of recent price increases, it’s appropriate…as Fed Chairman Powell has indicated, to recalibrate the support that is now necessary.”

Biden added that he respects the independence of the Fed.

Biden also detailed his administration’s efforts to fight inflation, including by unclogging supply chains and cracking down on unfair market competition. 

President Biden was asked during his news conference about schools closing around the country during the latest wave of Covid-19, driven by the Omicron variant. He said, “very few schools are closing.” 

“Over 95% are still open. So you all phrase the questions when — I don’t think it’s deliberate on your part, but you phrase the question when everyone watches this on television. All those schools must be closing. What are we going to do? 95% are still open.”

Biden then listed off a number of items that his administration has done to try to make sure that schools are safe. 

“We had the ability to provide the funding through the Recovery Act, through the act that – the first act we passed to be able to make sure schools were able to be safe. So we have new ventilation systems available for them. We have the way they handle a scrub down … the bathroom, cafeterias, buses, et cetera,” the President said.

He said that there are billions of dollars being made available by the government for schools, including $10 billion for testing of students in the schools. 

“So I think, as time goes on, it’s much more likely you’ll see that number go back up from 95%, back up to 98%, 99%” of schools open, Biden said.

President Biden says he believes “big chunks” of his sweeping social and climate spending plan will be made into law — a tacit acknowledgement the entirety of his Build Back Better plan is unlikely to be approved in Congress.

“I’m confident we can get pieces, big chunks of the Build Back Better law signed into law,” Biden said at a news conference at the White House.

He said items included in the bill, currently stalled amid united Republican opposition and key Democratic holdouts, were popular among the American people.

“I don’t think there’s anything unrealistic about what we’re asking for. I’m not asking for castles in the sky. I’m asking for practical things the American people have been asking for for a long time. A long time. And I think we can get it done,” he said.

He cited lower costs on prescription drugs, expanded education funding and support for child care as popular provisions.

“I don’t know many things that have been done in one fell swoop. And so I think the most important thing to do is try to inform, not educate, inform the public what’s at stake in stark terms and let them make judgments and let them know who is for them and who is against them. Who is there and who is not there and make that the case. That’s what I’m going to be spending my time doing in this off-year election,” Biden said.

President Biden said that he doesn’t plan on scaling back on the main priorities on his agenda despite facing challenges in passing the Build Back Better Act and stalled efforts on voting rights.

“We knew all along that a lot of this was going to be an uphill fight and one of the ways to do this is to make sure we make the contrast as clear as we can. And one of the things that I think is — we’re going to have to do is just make the case — I don’t think there’s anything unrealistic about what we’re asking for. I’m not asking for castles in the sky. I’m asking for practical things the American people have been asking for for a long time. A long time. And I think we can get it done,” Biden said.

When pressed about what he can accomplish ahead of the midterm elections, Biden said that has confidence that his administration will be able to sign into law “good chunks” of his agenda.

“I’m confident we can get pieces, big chunks of the Build Back Better law signed into law and I’m confident that we can take the case to the American people that the people they should be voting for, who are going to oversee whether your elections are, in fact, legit or not should not be those who are being put up by the Republicans to determine that they’re going to be able to change the outcome of the election… By the way, I haven’t given up. We haven’t finished the vote yet on what’s going on, on the, on voting rights,” Biden said.

President Biden has been asked multiple questions about the Democrats’ push to advance voting rights legislation as the party faces an uphill battle to pass the bills in Congress.

Asked if he thinks the upcoming elections will be fairly conducted and legitimate if voting rights legislation doesn’t pass, Biden said “it all depends on whether or not we’re able to make a case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election.”

“Well, I think, if, in fact, no matter how hard they make it for minorities to vote, I think you’ll see them willing to stand in line and defy the attempt to keep them from being able to vote. I think you’re going to see that people will try to keep from being able to show up, showing up and making the sacrifice need to make in order to change the law back to what it should be,” he continued. “But it’s going to be difficult. I make no bones about that, it’s going to be difficult, but we’re not there yet. We’ve not run out of options yet and we’ll see how this moves.”

Where things stand on voting rights in Congress: Senate Republicans are expected to once again block a voting bill put forward by Democrats in the latest partisan showdown over voting rights, an issue Democrats are seeking to spotlight despite the fact that they lack the votes to pass the legislation.

The Senate is on track to hold a vote this evening to attempt to break a GOP filibuster on the legislation, which combines key provisions of two bills: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

At least 10 Republicans would need to vote with Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster, which is not expected to happen amid widespread Republican opposition to the voting legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that if Republicans block the bill, he will hold a vote to change Senate rules to allow for a “talking filibuster” on the voting legislation.

The proposed rules change would force lawmakers who want to filibuster the bill to come to the Senate floor and speak in opposition. Once those speeches come to an end, the Senate would be able to hold a simple majority vote for final passage.

A vote to change the rules has not yet been scheduled but could happen as soon as late Wednesday evening.

But Democrats do not have the votes to change Senate filibuster rules either with moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona expected to oppose such a move.

Manchin has said he will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster and Sinema has defended the 60-vote threshold. Both senators have argued the filibuster helps bring about bipartisan compromise in the Senate.

Read more here.

When asked about the challenges the White House has faced during his first year in office, including a historic rise in inflation, a stalled domestic agenda and a rise in Covid-19 cases, President Biden said he “didn’t overpromise.”

“I didn’t overpromise. What I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen. The fact of the matter is that we’re in a situation where we have made enormous progress. You mentioned the number of deaths from Covid. Well, it was three times that not long ago. It’s coming down. Everything is changing. It’s getting better,” Biden said during a news conference Wednesday from the White House.

Biden added: “Look, I didn’t overpromise, but I think if you take a look at what we’ve been able to do, you’d have to acknowledge we made enormous progress. But one of the things that I think is something that, one thing I haven’t been able to do so far, is get my Republican friends to get in the game at making things better in this country.”

On inflation: From startlingly high inflation and empty grocery store shelves to elevated prices at the pump, Americans are frustrated with the state of the economy.

Polls indicate voters are every bit as concerned about the economy as they are about the pandemic. And they feel the government is not doing enough to fight inflation.

The high cost of living is the biggest problem in today’s economy. Prices of everything from new cars to full-service meals rose at the fastest pace on record in December.

High inflation is largely a consequence of Covid-19. Demand has surged as the economy recovers from the pandemic, but supply simply can’t keep up — in part because of Covid-related supply bottlenecks.

CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report.

President Biden was just asked about the ongoing tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday in remarks to personnel at the US Embassy in Kyiv that Russia has plans to further increase its military forces on Ukrainian borders.

“We know that there are plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice,” Blinken said of the massive troop build-up near Ukrainian borders. “And that gives President Putin the capacity also on very short notice to take further aggressive action against Ukraine and that, of course, has gotten not only our attention, but it’s gotten the attention of virtually all of our allies and partners and not just in Europe, even beyond.”

“This is a critical time for Ukraine,” Blinken explained to a crowd of roughly 60 people, speaking alongside Charge d’Affaires Kristina Kvien.

Blinken arrived in Ukraine’s capital on Wednesday for the first of three stops this week amid concerns that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine.

He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, reaffirming Washington’s support for the country and telling Zelensky that it is “up to Ukrainians and no one else.”

Blinken warned Russia there were two paths out of this situation:

“There is the path of diplomacy and dialogue to try to resolve whatever differences there are peacefully through diplomacy,” he said in his remarks to staff at the embassy. “Clearly the preferable path, clearly the most responsible path and the one that we would prefer, but there is also the path if Russia chooses to renew aggression, of conflict, confrontation and consequences for Russia.”

Blinken said President Biden had asked his team to “take stock” of the situation after intense negotiations with allies but also conversations with Russia, and to “reaffirm” the US’ commitment to Ukraine.

“I strongly, strongly hope that we can keep this on a diplomatic and peaceful path, but ultimately, that’s going to be President Putin’s decision,” he concluded.

The top US diplomat will be heading to Geneva on Friday to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Blinken and Lavrov plan to discuss Russia’s military build-up and its demands for security guarantees, in what will be the first high-level meeting between Russia and the United States since diplomatic talks last week ended without any major breakthroughs.

Where things stand: Russia has now deployed more than 127,000 troops near Ukraine, transferred more Iskander operational-tactical missiles to the border, and increased its intelligence activity against the country, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s latest intelligence assessment that was shared exclusively Tuesday with CNN.

The Kremlin has continued to deny it is planning an attack, while demanding that the US and its Western partners rule out further NATO eastward expansion, guarantee that Ukraine would never join the block, and prevent NATO from establishing military bases in post-Soviet countries.

President Biden admitted that the US should have done more testing for Covid-19 earlier in the pandemic, but stressed that his administration is “doing more now.”

“Look, we’re also increasing testing. Should we have done more testing earlier? Yes. But we’re doing more now,” he said while describing his administration’s pandemic response during today’s news conference. “We’ve gone from zero at-home tests a year ago to 375 million tests on the market in just this month.”

The President reiterated the White House’s plans to mail at-home tests to Americans who request them and the move to have insurers reimburse Americans for at-home tests they buy in stores.

President Biden discussed the challenges his administration and the country has faced because of the coronavirus pandemic during his first year in office in remarks from the White House.

“I know there’s a lot of frustration and fatigue in this country. And we know why, Covid-19. Omicron has now been challenging us in a way that it’s the new enemy,” Biden said.

“But while it’s caused for concern, it’s not cause for panic. We’ve been doing everything we can, learning and adapting as fast as we can and preparing for future beyond the pandemic,” he said.

Biden also highlighted how the country is now better positioned to tackle the pandemic, citing vaccination efforts, testing tools and new medications now available.

“We’re in a very different place now, though. We have the tools. Vaccines. boosters, masks, tests, pills to save lives and keep businesses and schools open. Seventy-five percent of adults are fully vaccinated. We’ve gone from 90 million adults with no shots in arms last summer and down to 35 million with no shots as of today. And we’re adding about 9 million more vaccinations each week. We’re going to stick with our vaccination efforts because vaccinations work. So get vaccinated, please. And get your booster,” the President said.  

President Biden was just asked about the ongoing Covid-19 surge and his administration’s pandemic response.

Here’s a look at the latest US figures on cases, vaccinations and hospitalizations:

Here’s a look at how Covid-19 cases have changed over time, according to JHU data:

President Biden said one of the keys to facing down inflation in the US is to promote healthy competition within various industries.

“A handful of giant companies dominate the market in sectors like meat processing, railroads, shipping, and other areas… Over time, it has reduced competition, squeezed out small businesses and farmers, ranchers and increased the price for consumers,” Biden said during a live news conference marking his first full year in office.

“Look, I’m a capitalist. But capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It’s exploitation,” he said.

Biden continued by saying that recent times in America have been as tough as any seen in recent memory.

“We have faced some of the biggest challenges that we’ve ever faced in this country, these past few years. Challenges to our public health. Challenges to our economy. But we’re getting through it,” he remarked, adding, “Not only are we getting through it, we’re laying the foundation for a future where America wins the 21st century by creating jobs at a record pace.”

Noting that he, as President, needs to “finish the job” of getting Covid-19 under control, Biden closed with a message of positivity and optimism.

“I’ve long said it’s never been a good bet to bet against the American people or America. I believe that more than ever today. We’ve seen the grit and determination of the American people this past year,” he said, adding, “The best days of this country are still ahead of us, not behind us.”

President Biden opened his news conference commemorating his first year in office by admitting that it’s been a year “of challenges” but also of considerable strides, including the vaccination of millions of Americans against Covid-19.

“Tomorrow will mark one year since I took office. It’s been a year of challenges, but it’s also been a year of enormous progress. We went from 2 million people being vaccinated at the moment I was sworn in to 210 million Americans being fully vaccinated today,” Biden said from the White House Wednesday afternoon.

Biden also used his opening remarks to highlight the number of jobs created under his watch.

“We created 6 million new jobs. More jobs in one year than any time before. Unemployment dropped. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%. Child poverty dropped by nearly 40%,” the President added.

On the pandemic: Biden’s remarks come as his administration will make 400 million N95 masks available to Americans for free starting next week, a White House official told CNN.

The US government launched a website for Americans to sign up for free Covid-19 tests as the country continues to battle the Omicron variant — which caused 99.5% of new coronavirus cases in the US last week, according to CDC estimates.

President Biden is holding a formal news conference from the White House as he marks the end of his first full year in office.

Biden is fielding questions from reporters as his administration’s struggles to contain the latest surge of the Omicron variant and works to ease the economic anxiety gripping the nation.

The President is entering his second year in office — a midterm election year — after facing a number of recent setbacks. The centerpiece of his economic agenda has hit a roadblock in Congress, it is unclear whether the Democrats’ push for voting rights legislation will go anywhere, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s vaccine mandates for big businesses and recent key economic indicators show record inflation.

The President regularly fields questions from reporters after delivering remarks and during departures and arrivals at the White House, but he hasn’t held as many formal news conferences as his recent predecessors. 

In his first year in office, Biden held nine total news conferences — six solo and three joint ones — according to data tracked by The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The last time he held a formal news conference was at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.  

By comparison, former President Donald Trump held 21 news conferences in his first year in office, but just one of them was solo and the rest were joint appearances, usually with foreign leaders. In his last year in office, as the pandemic took hold, Trump held a staggering 35 solo news conferences.

President Biden will open his news conference today touting “remarkable progress” on vaccinations, reopening the economy, creating jobs and lowering unemployment, a White House official said, but will also acknowledged the challenges facing his administration as he enters his second year in office.

“The President knows there’s more work to do,” an administration official said. “So he’s also going to level with the American people about the challenges we still face – especially when it comes to Covid-19 and higher prices – and the actions he’s taking to tackle them.”

Higher prices, of course, is inflation – but notably not the word used by the administration official.

We will see how the President describes during the news conference.

President Biden is set to hold a news conference marking his first year in office today, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Friday.

“Next Wednesday, the President will hold a formal press conference at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon,” Psaki told reporters at the press briefing, adding, “the President looks forward to speaking directly to the American people.”

Though Biden has fielded questions from the press informally following remarks and during departures and arrivals at the White House, he has not held a formal press conference since he addressed reporters at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 2, 2021.

Biden held nine total press conferences, including six solo and three joint press conferences with other world leaders, in his first year in office, according to data tracked by the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

By comparison, former President Donald Trump held 21 total press conferences his first year in office. Former President Barack Obama held 16 press conferences in his first year in office, and former President George W. Bush held 14 press conferences during the same time, per USCB data.

Early in his term, President Biden told the country that he had been elected to solve problems. As he marks the anniversary of his inauguration with a news conference today, there are growing doubts over whether he can fulfill this theory of his own presidency.

The White House appears increasingly beset by the extreme nature of the challenges Biden faces at home and abroad, undermined by some of its own strategic decisions and limited by tiny congressional majorities. The administration bet on vaccines ending the pandemic by now, but inoculations became politicized and millions of Americans chose not to get their shots, while viral variants have helped prolong the emergency.

The sense of a beleaguered presidency was underscored by a volley of blows last week, including the torpedoing of Biden’s voting rights push by two moderate Democratic senators in a hit to his authority, and the Supreme Court’s striking down of vaccine and test requirements for large firms, a centerpiece of his pandemic strategy.

The dual setbacks come with Biden’s signature social spending and climate change legislation also stalled— like the voting rights bills — because moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona refuse to get on board.

Biden ended the week accused by critics of undermining his own inaugural vow to pursue national unity after comparing opponents of voting rights reform to segregationists. In a symbol of administration futility, the public holiday marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday also stood as a blown deadline set by Senate Democrats to enshrine voting rights bills into law. Senate votes on the measures — and the rules changes needed to pass them — are certain to fail unless Sinema and Manchin change their minds, only underscoring the narrative of stalemate.

Read more here.

If President Biden’s only task in his solo press conference on Wednesday was restoring his battered political standing, it would be daunting enough. But the President will arrive in the East Room at a moment of national exhaustion and drained morale as the coronavirus pandemic heads into a third year, amid a sense that events at home and abroad are cascading out of control and that vicious ideological divides could tear America apart.

The country has not been as ideologically estranged for generations. Two big blocks of Americans believe everything that they think their nation stands for could be ripped away.

Biden was elected to slake the poison, bridge divides and solve problems. But in his first year in office, political bitterness has deepened, partly because of ex-President Donald Trump’s corrosive and dangerous campaign to destroy American democracy. And Biden’s interpretation of tiny Democratic mandates in Congress might have delighted liberals but it has prompted some who saw him as a moderate to wonder whether they misjudged him.

In such an atmosphere, the President is under pressure to do more than advance a political program that is now almost certain to fall well short of his ambitious goals.

Extreme times call for presidents to restate a sense of common national mission, to assess simultaneous crises with clarity and to inject a sense of hope that some sense of normality may be on the horizon. Or if it isn’t, to at least demonstrate a strategy to slowly turn things around that voters can trust.

Most likely, today’s televised session with journalists will serve to stress the impossibility of the task before President Biden and underscore the cruel, lonely reality behind President Harry S. Truman’s mantra that “the buck stops here.”

The White House called the press conference to highlight wins in Biden’s first term — including a quickly scaled-up vaccine drive to combat Covid-19, a rare bipartisan law that will spend $1 trillion on repairing infrastructure, large cuts in child poverty and Biden’s relaunch of traditional American leadership on the world stage following Trump’s tantrums at summits, genuflecting to tyrants and trashing of alliances.

But Biden’s victory lap will be short. Few presidents in recent times have faced such a staggering catalogue of crises as they prepare for a White House press conference. He is sure to be assailed by a flurry of questions to which the White House has yet to provide decisive answers. The event may ultimately point more to the stark challenges in the year ahead than to the achievements that Biden racked up in his first 12 months in power.

Here are 10 broad questions facing Biden today:

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As he walked through the front gate of the White House complex last year for the first time as President, Joe Biden declared it felt like “going home.”

If the presidency seemed then like a natural fit for a 50-year creature of Washington, today its limits are leading to a reckoning over expectations and ambitions in a country as exhausted, angry and divided as ever.

Biden enters the second year of his term with one of the lowest approval ratings of a modern-day president, depleted of the political capital and sense of confidence that followed him into office.

A sense of normalcy returned to the White House following the whiplash of Donald Trump’s presidency, but a string of setbacks — at home and abroad — have eroded the air of competence that once surrounded a President and his team, who have spent most of their lives in government and campaigned for the job on a pledge of restoring order.

On most days since Jan. 20, 2021, the President has arrived at the Oval Office early in the morning, peppered his team with detailed questions and tried not to think too much about the man who’d just vacated the building, leaving behind a pandemic, angry divisions and — inside a drawer of the Resolute Desk — a lengthy letter for Biden.

The President has worked to make the place his own, installing his family’s furniture, ordering up chocolate ice cream bars branded with the presidential seal and returning to traditions his predecessor abandoned.

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President Joe Biden after delivering remarks on the November jobs report in the State Dining Room of the White House in Decembere 2021.

Related article Joe Biden enters the second year of his presidency looking for a reset after a tumultuous first 12 months