Joe Biden admits failures in his first year in office

US President Joe Biden admitted on Wednesday that he had made some mistakes in his first year in office, predicting that Russia would invade Ukraine and creating confusion about what the West’s response would be.

In a press conference lasting almost two hours, Biden took stock of his mandate so far in relation to the pandemic, the economy and inflation, the pending bills on social spending and the right to vote, in addition to relations with Latin America. , Russia, China, Iran and Yemen.

“It has been a year of challenges, but it has also been a year of enormous progress,” said the president, who this Thursday celebrates his first anniversary in the White House.

admits faults

Although Biden denied that he had “promised too much” in his electoral campaign and believed that he had done things “better than expected” given the circumstances, he acknowledged that there is a lot of “frustration and fatigue” due to the covid-19 pandemic.

He admitted that his government should “have done more tests before”, especially given the spike in infections that the arrival of the omicron variant of covid-19 has generated in the United States, but he said that the important thing is that now there is more evidence of available antigens.

The White House has blamed that pandemic fatigue for Biden entering his first year in office with a popularity rating of just 42%, the lowest rating for a president since the mid-20th century with the sole exception of his predecessor. , Donald Trump, whose rate was 39.5%.

Biden, who wanted to declare “independence from the virus” in the middle of last year but was later forced to deal with the delta and omicron variants, insisted that there will come a time when covid-19 “will not be a crisis” in U.S.

Instead, he did not acknowledge failures regarding inflation or the supply chain, although he considered it “appropriate” that the president of the Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, “recalibrate” the support provided to the economy during the pandemic.

Underestimated opposing party

What he did admit is that he “underestimated” the resistance that the Republican Party would oppose to his measures, which is still under the reins of Trump, controls a large number of seats in Congress and has not voted for any of the measures approved so far by the Democrats.

The president thus discarded the dream of bipartisan cooperation with which he came to power a year ago and which seems dead ten months before the legislative elections in November, in which the Democrats are likely to lose control of the lower house.

In this context, he admitted that he will not be able to approve his $1.75 trillion social spending plan intact, but will have to settle for smaller portions of it, among which he cited an investment against the climate crisis.

In the same vein, he regretted that the immigration reform proposal that he presented a year ago has not been approved, stressing that there is “not a single Republican vote” in favor of that measure, unlike a few years ago.

Regarding the discontent of many black voters, Biden denied that he had not paid enough attention to issues such as the right to vote and believed that the only thing he should do is explain his management better.

“It’s a problem that I’ve created myself, by not communicating things as well as I should,” said Biden, who vowed to travel more this year and explain his handling of issues directly to voters.

Warning to Russia

At the international level, Biden predicted that Russia will end up “entering” Ukraine with its troops and he considers it “possible” to hold another summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to reduce tensions.

Although he warned that Putin “has never seen sanctions like the ones” he has “promised will be imposed if he moves” towards Ukraine, he also caused confusion by insinuating that the West’s response might not be so harsh if Moscow opts for some measure that do not assume a full-scale invasion.

“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we end up arguing (in NATO) about what to do and what not to do, but if (the Russians) do what they’re capable of doing with a massive force on the border, it’s going to be a disaster for Russia,” he stressed.

That claim raised alarm in Ukraine, where an official source told CNN it appeared that Biden was “giving Putin the green light to enter” the country as long as it was a “minor incursion.”

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki was later forced to clarify in a statement that “if any Russian military force crosses the border with Ukraine,” Washington will consider it “a new invasion” and impose “swift and severe” retaliation. in coordination with its European allies.

Biden also said that “this is not the time” to abandon the negotiations to save the nuclear agreement with Iran, that China “has an obligation” to give more details about the origin of covid-19, that it is “very difficult” for it to end the war in Yemen and that he does not regret his management of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Finally, he referred to his conversations with Latin American countries about immigration from Central America and the situation in Venezuela and said that he no longer wants to talk about the continent as “the backyard” of the US, but as “the front yard.” , because he considers that they are nations “equal” to his own. (I)