Our live coverage has ended. You can through the posts here to see how the CNN town hall unfolded.
President Biden answered a range of questions during a CNN town hall in Baltimore this evening.
The town hall came at a critical time for Biden as his administration continues to sell his ambitious legislative agenda to members of Congress and the nation.
If you’re just reading in now, here’s a look at some of the highlights from tonight:
At the end of tonight’s town hall, President Biden was asked what was something that people didn’t know about Gen. Colin Powell, who died this week and whom the President considered a close friend.
Biden said that Powell had “enormous integrity,” calling him “one of the few serious, serious players I’ve dealt with over these years.”
“When he made a mistake, he acknowledges it. He said, ‘I acknowledge — I was wrong,’” the President said.
On the lighter side, Biden told Anderson Cooper a story about the time that he and Powell raced Corvettes on a Secret Service racetrack.
Biden said that he won the race but only because Powell “was worried I was going to crash into him.”
President Biden said the US was committed to coming to Taiwan’s defense if it comes under attack from China — a stance that seems in opposition to America’s stated policy of “strategic ambiguity.”
Asked twice at CNN’s town hall whether the US would protect Taiwan if China attacked, Biden said it would.
Biden has made similar statements in the past, only to have the White House say longstanding US policy had not changed toward the island. The US provides Taiwan defensive weapons, but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.
Under the “One China” Policy, the US acknowledges China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. In recent weeks, Beijing has sent dozens of warplanes near into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), and Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that “reunification” between China and Taiwan was inevitable.
Biden said he was not concerned about an intentional military conflict with China — but indicated he was worried about unintentional escalation.
“China, Russia and the rest of the world knows we have the most powerful military in history of the world. Don’t worry about whether they’re going to be more powerful,” he said. “But you do have to worry about whether or not they’re going to engage in activities put them in a position where they may make a serious mistake.”
Biden, citing his relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said he wasn’t looking to enter a prolonged conflict.
A White House official later clarified Biden’s comments tonight on Taiwan, saying Biden was “not announcing any change in our policy and there is no change in our policy” in his remarks about China and Taiwan.
“The US defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act. We will uphold our commitment under the act, we will continue to support Taiwan’s self-defense, and we will continue to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo,” the official said.
President Biden tonight said he will consider visiting the southern border, suggesting he has not visited so far because he has been busy visiting the sites of disasters around the country.
Biden noted that he has travelled the country and the globe since taking office in January, adding he has “not had a whole lot of time to get down” to the border.
“I have been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion worth of damage done by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world,” he said.
Earlier in the exchange Biden also defended his decision to keep in place Title 42, a policy of former President Donald Trump’s which allows immigration officials swiftly return people who cross over the border in order to limit the spread of Covid-19.
“We have maintained that because of the … continued extent of Covid in those countries from which people are coming,” he said. “It is very, high. So, we maintained the policy.”
“We are not sending back children, we send back adults, and we send back large families but we don’t send back children in that circumstance,” he added.
President Biden was asked about changing the filibuster so that Democrats can pass the voting rights legislation.
The President said getting into a debate over the filibuster right now will cost him votes on his economic agenda.
“Here is the deal, if, in fact, I get myself into at this moment the debate on the filibuster, I lose at least three votes right now to get what I have to get done on the economic side of the equation, foreign policy side of the equation,” he said.
Biden said that in the meantime they should bring back a rule where lawmakers have to physically hold the floor “immediately.”
Biden added that he believes we are at the point where moving forward “we fundamentally alter the filibuster.”
He said it “remains to be seen exactly what that means in terms of fundamentally — on whether or not we just end the filibuster straight up.”
In an answer to a follow-up question, Biden said he would entertain the possibility of doing away with the filibuster on the voting rights issue “and maybe more”
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The fight over voting rights has once again put the filibuster front and center. President Biden was just asked about the Senate procedure during his town hall event.
Senate Republicans blocked another voting rights bill Wednesday, as some on the left call to change the chamber’s rules to allow the Democratic Party to unilaterally change federal election law. The vote was 49 to 51.
Amid the Republican blockade, Democrats on the left have also increasingly called on their party’s senators to gut the Senate’s filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to advance most legislation.
Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman, a Senate Democratic candidate, said in a statement, “every Democratic Senator who votes in favor of this bill today, but won’t support getting rid of the filibuster, is engaging in performative politics, and is content with the GOP’s complete assault on our democracy.”
But what is a filibuster, and why do Democrats want to change it? The short version of the story is that Democrats want to reinterpret Senate rules so they can use just 50 votes to pass things like the voting rights bill or Biden’s massive infrastructure package.
According to the Senate website — which has its own glossary — a filibuster is this: “Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.”
These days, it’s shorthand for anytime senators demand a supermajority to cut off debate and move to an actual vote on just about anything.
When people talk about ending the filibuster, what they really mean is reinterpreting Senate rules around cloture so that legislation could pass by a simple majority instead of being held up by a minority.
Because Democrats have only 50 votes right now, every one of them needs to be on board to change the Senate rules — and they could be changed back in the future. Currently, moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia are not in favor of changing it.
Read more about the filibuster here.
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CNN’s Zach Wolfe, Daniella Diaz and Alex Rogers Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post.
President Biden explained tonight that Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were holdouts on critical priority items: expanding paid leave and Medicare, offering tuition-free community college and raising taxes on corporations.
He described in detail how he’d arrived at critical compromises with the two moderate senators, and offered new insights on national television into two of the most important relationships in Washington.
Biden said a paid leave provision included in the original framework had been whittled down to four weeks, a significant concession from Biden’s original goal of twelve weeks.
He said it would be a “reach” to include dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare, a key priority for progressives including independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, saying Manchin opposed it — and that he believed Sinema was against it as well.
Instead, he said he was working to include an $800 voucher for dental coverage, and was still negotiating whether vision could be added, too.
He flatly said he was opposed to work requirements for a child tax credit, which Manchin has favored.
And he acknowledged that tuition-free community college was unlikely to make it in the final bill, saying instead an expansion of Pell grants could help drive toward expanded higher education.
President Biden, when asked about Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s stance on Build Back Better, said that Sinema is “supportive” of his environmental agenda but added it “breaks down” over Sinema’s reluctance to increase taxes “a single penny.”
Biden added that he is continuing to work with the senator to reach a point where can present a “serious piece of legislation” for the American people.
As for how they’d get there, Biden said there were down to “four to five issues” he’s not going to discuss on national television.
Biden said it appeared unlikely he would get corporate tax hikes included in the plan amid opposition from Sinema.
A White House official added on Biden’s comments: “The President was referring to the challenge of having the votes to move forward on raising the corporate rate, not to the ability to raise revenue through a range of other tax fairness proposals, which Senator Sinema supports.”
President Biden said emergency responders should be mandated to receive the Covid-19 vaccine and possibly risk losing their job if they refuse.
“I’m wondering where you stand on that should police officers emergency responders be mandated to get vaccines and if not, should they stay at home or be let go?” CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked the President.
“Yes, and yes,” Biden said matter-of-factly.
Biden noted that he held out before going all-in on mandatory vaccines, but the scientific data ultimately forced his hand.
“I waited until July to talk about mandating. I tried everything else possible. The mandates are working,” he said.
The President went on to note that there are two angles regarding the vaccine that bother him in particular.
“One, are those who just try to make this a political issue,” he said, adding, “The second one is the gross misinformation that’s out there.”
President Biden was asked when he thinks gas prices will start to come down. He said he expects the price to stay high into next year.
“My guess is you’ll start to see gas prices come down as we get … into next year, 2022. I don’t see anything that’s going to happen in the meantime that’s going to significantly reduce gas prices,” he said.
Biden said the high price of gas at this time is due to a number of factors, some of which have to do with foreign gas production.
President Biden tonight said he thinks that vaccines will be approved and widely available for children soon, but added the caveat that will he allow the nation’s health and science agencies to make an independent determination.
“The expectations are, they should be ready in the near term,” said Biden, when asked by a mother of two young boys when they might be deemed safe for children and made available.
Earlier this week, the White House on unveiled its plans to roll out Covid-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, pending US Food and Drug Administration authorization.
On distribution, Biden said there are already 800,000 vaccination sites across the country which could administer vaccines to eligible children.
“There will be plenty of places to be able to get the vaccine, if, and when, it is approved,” he said.
Biden, however, went out of his way to contrast himself with former President Donald Trump’s administration, saying he would not put pressure on agencies charged with approval.
“I want to make it clear, unlike past administrations, science will dictate this,” he said.
President Biden was just asked about Covid-19 vaccines for kids. The White House on Wednesday unveiled its plans to roll out Covid-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, pending US Food and Drug Administration authorization.
The Biden administration has secured enough vaccine supply to vaccinate the 28 million children ages 5 to 11 who would become eligible for vaccination if the vaccine is authorized for that age group and will help equip more than 25,000 pediatric and primary care offices, hundreds of community health centers and rural health clinics as well as tens of thousands of pharmacies to administer the shots, according to the White House.
“We know millions of parents have been waiting for Covid-19 vaccine for kids in this age group. And should the FDA and (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) authorize the vaccine, we will be ready to get shots in arms,” White House Covid-19 response director Jeff Zients told reporters at a White House Covid-19 briefing on Wednesday.
Zients continued: “Kids have different needs than adults and our operational planning is geared to meet those specific needs, including by offering vaccinations in settings that parents and kids are familiar with and trust.”
The administration is also launching a partnership with the Children’s Hospital Association “to work with over 100 children’s hospital systems across the country to set up vaccination sites in November and through the end of the calendar year,” the White House announced.
The administration also plans to help make vaccination available at school and other “community-based sites” with help from Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.
Read more here.
President Biden acknowledged that the combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and a challenging economy has many Americans feeling disheartened.
The President told the live audience that as things in the country improve, spirits will be lifted.
“A lot of it has to do with us getting back on our feet. Getting back on our feet, in terms of our attitudes about what the future looks like for us.”
Asked by host Anderson Cooper what Biden could offer those currently struggling, the President assured viewers that they aren’t alone.
“There’s plenty of help. Being down, having some problem, in terms of needing some advice, if you have a broken spirit, it’s no different than a broken arm,” he said, adding, “They shouldn’t be ashamed of it. They should seek the help. There is a lot of people who can help.”
With Thanksgiving roughly a month away, and Christmas to follow shortly thereafter, Biden noted that the calendar could add to Americans’ stress.
“How often do I get asked the question, ‘What’s Christmas going to be like? How about Thanksgiving? Will it be okay? What is going to happen? Will I be able to buy gifts for my kids?’” revealed Biden, noting, “There’s a lot of anxiety people have.”
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President Joe Biden this evening said he would call on the National Guard to help solve the supply chain crisis.
“Yes, absolutely, positively I will do that,” he said, when asked by Anderson Cooper if he was prepared to call up the National Guard.
Biden then said he would specifically consider calling up the National Guard for trucking to help solve a shortage of drivers.
“The answer is, ‘yes,’ if we can’t move, increase the number of truckers, which we are in a process of doing,” he said when pressed by Cooper, who is moderating the town hall.
After Biden’s comments, a White House official said the administration is not actively considering deploying the National Guard to help ease the supply chain gridlock.
“Requesting the use of the National Guard at the state level is under the purview of governors and we are not actively pursuing the use of the National Guard on a federal level,” a White House official told CNN.
President Biden this evening repeatedly name-checked Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who has created steep hurdles for Democratic leadership attempting to move spending bills through Congress, but also called the West Virginia senator “a friend” and expressed optimism he would eventually support the bills.
Biden started by expressing frustration over Manchin’s resistance to Democrats’ Medicare plans saying, “Mr. Manchin is opposed to that,” adding he is “not interested” in proposals to lower the cost, which is his main concern.
Biden also noted Manchin’s resistance to proposals for free community college, one of Biden’s key campaign promises, telling Anderson Cooper that Manchin “has indicated that they will not support free community college.”
On the environment, Biden also described Manchin’s concerns for the coal industry which is a large economic driver in West Virginia.
The President did, however, offer some kind words for the moderate senator, calling him “a friend,” and suggesting he’d eventually support the proposals.
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President Biden was asked about his plan to combat climate change to ensure a future for the next generations. Biden said, “The existential threat to humanity is climate change.”
He noted that one of the first things he did once he took office was rejoin the Paris climate accord.
“And when President Trump pulled out of the Paris accord, which when I was with the Obama administration we helped negotiate, the agreement was that we could not — if we reached beyond 1.5 degrees celsius increase in temperature we’re gone. Not a joke. Not a joke … First thing I committed to do is rejoin that accord. Number one.”
Biden said that in the next few weeks he will be traveling to Scotland for the COP26 summit on climate change being put on by the United Nations.
“I’m going off to COP26 in Scotland … and I’m presenting a commitment to the world that we will in fact get to net zero emissions on electric power by 2035 and net zero emissions across the board by 2050 or before. But we have to do so much between now and 2030 to demonstrate what we’re going to do.”
President Biden laid out in the most specific terms to date what will be — and what won’t be — included in a compromise budget measure that contains the bulk of his sweeping domestic agenda.
Speaking at a CNN town hall, Biden said a paid leave provision had been whittled down to four weeks, down from Biden’s goal of twelve weeks.
He said it would a “reach” to include dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare, a key priority for progressives, saying it was opposed by Sen. Joe Manchin — and that he believed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was against it as well. Instead, he said he was working to include an $800 voucher for dental coverage, and was still negotiating vision coverage.
He flatly said he was opposed to work requirements for the child tax credit, which Manchin has favored.
And he acknowledged that tuition-free community college was unlikely to make it in the final bill, saying instead an expansion of Pell grants could help drive toward expanded higher education.
The details of the plan emerged in the midst of final-stage negotiations among Democrats, who have spent weeks sparring over what to include in the large spending package.
Biden was frank in describing the power of individual senators in the ongoing talks.
“Look, in the United States Senate, when you have 50 Democrats, every one is the president,” he said.
President Biden leaned on his empathy and human connections when answering an early CNN town hall question.
As an audience member detailed her challenges caring for two elderly and ill parents, Biden began by saying, “If my mom were here she would say you are a good daughter.”
As for the issue itself — middle-class families bearing the responsibility of caring for seniors — the President detailed his plan: “What we do is we provide the funding for Medicaid to allow you to be able to … get help in your home, with home care professionals … helping you take care of them.”
Additionally, Biden noted the ways in which the plan would strengthen underserved communities.
“We’re going to be able to train up those home care workers who are usually of minority women, women of color, as well as immigrants. They have the capacity to learn more as they go along,” said Biden, adding “it makes a lot of sense, and it’s cheaper… than it is to not do it.”
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President Biden said that it’s time for corporations to “pay your fair share” while discussing tax rates during the town hall.
He said that currently, the US is “in a circumstance where corporate America is not paying their fair share,” adding, “I come from the corporate state of the world: Delaware.”
Biden continued: “More corporations in Delaware than every other state in the union combined. Okay? Now, here’s the deal, though. You have 55 corporations, for example, in the United States of America making over $40 billion, don’t pay a cent. Not a single little red cent. Now, I don’t care — I’m a capitalist. I hope you can be a millionaire or billionaire. But at least pay your fair share. Chip in a little bit.”
Biden said that corporate leaders know “they should be paying a little more” in taxes.
President Biden this evening expressed optimism on two key spending proposals in Congress suggesting he believes lawmakers in a divided Congress are nearing an agreement.
“I do think I’ll get a deal,” he said, when asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if he thinks he will.
Biden also urged lawmakers to focus on compromise on the two pieces of legislation which together contain much of his domestic agenda.
The President went on to address those who may doubt whether he will be able to push such ambitious legislation across the finish line, saying it is at the very heart of why he ran for President.
Biden has spent months delivering speeches across the country trying to sell the public on his infrastructure plans. This week, Biden is meeting with lawmakers to negotiate both aspects of his infrastructure proposals — a sweeping economic package to expand the social safety net and a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
There is still significant work to be done and the critical holdouts — Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — still have not signed onto the plan, officials say.
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