Biden expects to run in 2024

In his first news conference as president, Joe Biden addressed the situation at the US-Mexico border, American withdrawal from Afghanistan, gun laws, voting rights, the legislative filibuster — and whether he will seek re-election.

"The answer is yes, my plan is to run for re-election,'' which Biden hadn't said before. "That's my expectation," he said, adding that he was confident that Vice-President Kamala Harris would also be on the ticket.

But Biden acknowledged that events may intervene. "I'm a great respecter of fate. I've never been able to plan four and a half, three and a half years ahead for certain," he said.

When a reporter asked the Democratic president if he expected his predecessor Donald Trump to run again, Biden said, "Oh, come on. I don't even think about — I have no idea. I have no idea whether there will be a Republican Party, do you?"

Only 40 reporters were permitted in the East Room for the news conference because of COVID-19 restrictions; all wore face masks and were seated apart. Biden entered the room wearing a mask and took it off to answer questions.

During the roughly hourlong news conference, it was clear the 78-year-old president was relying at times on scripted talking points. He abruptly ended some answers when he seemed to be meandering.

"Am I giving you too long an answer?" he asked several minutes into an answer on immigration. "Maybe I should stop there."

Biden opened the news conference by touting his administration's progress in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, vowing to deliver 200 million vaccinations by the end of April, twice his previous pledge, and the passage of his $1.9 trillion economic rescue bill, citing new forecasts that show economic growth for the year could reach 6 percent.

But reporters didn't ask about the pandemic and quickly focused on how the administration is handling the increasing number of migrants coming to the US-Mexico border.

Biden has begun unwinding several of Trump's hard-line immigration policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols, which made them wait in Mexico for their immigration court hearing. But Biden made no apologies for reversing some of his predecessor's policies, saying he would never apologize for ending policies the Trump administration put in place.

He cast his approach to what Republicans and some Democrats have called a "crisis'' as humane. "We're building back up the capacity that should have been maintained and built upon, that Trump dismantled," Biden said. "It's going to take time."

Biden sought to downplay the number of migrants crossing into the United States, saying it is a seasonal increase that mapped with previous years.

After reporters who said they had visited the border facilities described crowded conditions and asked what is going to be done, Biden said the conditions reported in some facilities are "totally unacceptable" and that while things are improving, they need to get "a whole hell of a lot better real quick or we're going to hear of some people leaving". "We can get this done. We're going to get it done," he added.

He repeatedly blamed Trump for the overcrowding at the border.

"He in fact shut down the number of beds available," Biden said of Trump. "He did not fund HHS (Health and Human Services) to get the children out of those Border Patrol facilities where they should not be. He dismantled all that," Biden said.

The president said that his administration will accelerate efforts to move migrant children out of crowded conditions on the border, saying that he had directed his top immigration officials this week to accelerate the pace at which they are placed with relatives already living in the United States.

Although the administration is currently accepting unaccompanied migrant children, Biden indicated it may begin deporting some children depending on their cases. "The judgment has to be made whether or not," Biden said of deporting unaccompanied children.

He said all those crossing the border illegally except children should be sent home. "We're in negotiations with the president of Mexico," he said. "I think we're going to see that change. They should all be going back."

On pulling all US troops out of Afghanistan by May 1, the deadline set by Trump, Biden said he was unlikely do it, but added that he couldn't imagine troops still there a year from now. There are about 2,500 US troops there.

"We've been meeting with our allies,'' Biden said, particularly those who still have troops in Afghanistan, "and if we leave, we are going to do so in a safe and orderly way". Moments later he moved from the "if we leave'' to saying, "It is not my intention to stay there for a long time".

On domestic issues, Biden made it clear that passing any gun-safety legislation isn't his next priority.

When asked about what actions he planned to take in the wake of back-to-back mass shootings that killed eight people in the Atlanta area last week and 10 in Boulder, Colorado, this week, he said, "The successful presidents, better than me, have been successful in large part because they know how to time what they're doing."

"Decide priorities. What needs to be done. The next major initiative is, and I'll be announcing it Friday in Pittsburgh in detail, is to rebuild the infrastructure both physical and technological infrastructure in this country so that we can compete and create good-paying jobs".

He mentioned various infrastructure issues, including capping oil wells, repairing roads and bridges and helping the US close an infrastructure-spending gap with China.

Biden was asked whether he worried that Democrats could lose control of the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections if they were unable to pass voting rights legislation. "What I'm worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is," Biden responded.

He criticized attempts by Republican-controlled state legislatures to impose new voting restrictions that he said could make it more difficult for the public to vote in some states. Republicans say that election rules should be left in the hands of the states.

But Biden called their efforts "sick'', saying that even Republican voters view actions that make it harder for people to cast ballots as "despicable" attempts to undermine democracy.

The president broke new ground on his views of the Senate filibuster, saying he strongly supports a return to the so-called talking filibuster, which requires senators to remain on the floor in objection to legislation, and signaled openness to additional steps.

Biden said the filibuster — which requires 60 votes to pass legislation in the Senate — was being "abused in a gigantic way" and signaled that he would be open to more aggressive steps to limit or abolish it, starting with a proposal that would require senators to keep talking in order to block legislation.

"I strongly support moving in that direction," he said. "If there's complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster, then we'll have to go beyond what I'm talking about."