Free Republic

President Biden provides an update on his administration’s COVID-19 response and the vaccination program.

President Biden on Thursday said “the climate crisis” caused deadly New York City flooding from Tropical Storm Ida as he used the disaster to push his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Biden spoke after at least 18 people died in New York and New Jersey, including at least eight people who drowned in flooded basement apartments in Queens and Brooklyn. “The past few days of Hurricane Ida and the wildfires in the West and the unprecedented flash floods in New York and New Jersey is yet another reminder that these extreme storms and the climate crisis are here,” Biden said in...

The death and destruction caused by Storm Ida is a reminder that "the climate crisis is here" and "we must better prepare," US President Joe Biden has said. Addressing the nation in a news conference on Thursday, Mr Biden said: "The past few days of Hurricane Ida and the wildfires in the west and the unprecedented flash floods in New York and New Jersey is yet another reminder that these extreme storms and the climate crisis are here." "We must better prepare. We need to act," he said. "It's a matter of life and death, and we're all in it...

President Biden said on Thursday his administration would help those impacted by Hurricane Ida, outlining his response ahead of his trip to Louisiana to survey the storm’s damage. “My message to everyone effected is we’re all in this together. The nation is here to help. That’s the message I’ve been making clear to the majors, governors, energy and utility leaders in the region who my administration has been working closely with over the last few days,” he said during remarks at the White House. “We’ll be working around the clock until the critical needs of the region are fully met....

President Joe Biden wanted the now-departed Afghan president to create the 'perception' that his government was capable of holding off the Taliban - an indication he knew it was only a matter of time before the US ally fell to the Islamic group even while reassuring Americans at home that it would not happen. In the last phone call between Biden and his Afghan then-counterpart Ashraf Ghani, the American president said they needed to change perceptions of the Taliban's rapid advance 'whether it is true or not,' according to excerpts published on Tuesday. Four weeks before Kabul collapsed, Ghani pleaded...

A defiant President Joe Biden defended his tumultuous exit from Afghanistan on Tuesday, refusing to admit mistakes or accept blame for lives lost or Americans left behind. “Some say that the evacuation from Afghanistan could have been started sooner and completed in a more orderly fashion,” Biden said. “I respectfully disagree.” Biden began by describing the military evacuation as a success, defying critics of his rushed exit from the country after the Taliban seized control of Kabul on August 15. “The extraordinary success of this mission is due to the incredible skill bravely (sic) and selfless courage of the United...

The 31 August deadline to evacuate troops was not "arbitrary" and was "designed to save lives," Mr Biden says, adding that America had "succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan more than a decade ago and we stayed for another decade". [snip] It comes as details emerged of the last call between President Biden and his Afghan counterpart, Ashraf Ghani. During the call on 23 July, neither of the leaders appeared to be prepared for the Taliban's surge across Afghanistan and the collapse of its government 23 days later. "We are going to continue to fight hard,...

On Tuesday afternoon, Joe Biden tried to “turn the page” from a month of chaos and death in Afghanistan and, more broadly, from 20 years of ultimately futile US attempts at occupation and nation-building. He spoke of the “extraordinary success” of the US evacuation mission over the past few weeks, with more than a hundred thousand Americans and Afghans airlifted out under extreme duress. At times he seemed defensive, noting that Americans were warned 19 times to exit Afghanistan before the August US military withdrawal. He accused Afghan leaders, allies on whom the US had depended, of “corruption and malfeasance”....

President Joe Biden will address the nation later today – nearly 24 hours after the final American troops departed Afghanistan in a frantic exit that left hundreds of stranded US citizens in the Taliban-run nation. Soon after the final US transport planes left Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport – marking the end of America’s longest war – Biden issued a written statement saying he would address the nation at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Biden later pushed back his speech to 2:45 p.m. The president has drawn fierce criticism for the chaotic withdrawal, which resulted in the deaths of 13 US service...

Joe Biden and Jill on Sunday made an unannounced trip to Dover airbase to greet the plane carrying the remains of 13 US servicemen and women. After the photo op, Joe Biden headed over to FEMA headquarters in DC. Biden delivered remarks on Hurricane Ida at FEMA headquarters later Sunday — anything to avoid talking about Afghanistan. Biden called on a reporter following remarks on Hurricane Ida and the reporter asked him about Afghanistan. “I’m not supposed to take any questions, but go ahead,” Biden said. Biden slammed his hand on the lectern and said he’s not going to answer...

Joe Biden crumbled when confronted by reporters with the deaths of 13 troops and 90 people who were slaughtered at Kabul airport on Thursday by two ISIS bomb attacks in the latest tragic episode of his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The 78-year-old President was lost for words at times and and frustrated in others, gripping his notebook and widening his eyes while reporters from a pre-approved list asked him questions for about 30 minutes. The press conference was at 5pm, nearly eight hours after the two blasts. Biden said nothing all day before the briefing. When pressed, accepted responsibility for...

Didn't see a thread for todays Presser. Here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22-bI7dBLEM

President Biden Remarks on Afghanistan

G7 meeting is over, so I guess we'll hear about that

President Joe Biden is speaking after the Food and Drug Administration announced it has granted full approval to Pfizer and BioNTech for their COVID-19 vaccine to be given to Americans as young as 16, the first COVID-19 vaccine to receive full FDA approval. Health officials hope the new status will encourage more unvaccinated people to get the jab.

President Biden address(es) the nation on the situation in Afghanistan as well as the administration’s response to Hurricane Henri.

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Friday claimed that al-Qaeda is “gone” from Afghanistan and that the Taliban is letting Americans reach Kabul’s airport, before Pentagon leaders contradicted the commander in chief on both claims. Biden stumbled repeatedly when taking his first questions from reporters on Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban — also claiming that US allies were not displeased by the chaotic US pullout, despite rare public rebukes. “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan,” Biden said...

President Joe Biden tried on Friday to reassure Americans remaining in Afghanistan that he would get them home to the United States but also admitted he could not guarantee the mission would be a success. “Let me be clear, any American who wants to come home, we will get you home,” he said during a speech at the White House. But he also warned of the risks and the danger involved with the evacuation process. “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or that it will be without risk of loss, but as commander-in-chief, I can assure you...

Doing what the media won’t: Fact-checking Biden’s address on AfghanistanI’m relying on the White House release of Presidentish Joe Biden’s remarks.Shall we get right to it?CLAIM: “My national security team and I have been closely monitoring the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and moving quickly to execute the plans we had put in place to respond to every constituency, including — and contingency — including the rapid collapse we’re seeing now.”REALITY: Biden Scrapped Trump’s Afghanistan Rescue Plan. “Raheem Kassam revealed on Wednesday that under President Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo’s State Department had ordered the creation of a ‘Contingency and...