In Milwaukee, Biden Offers Reassurance, and Tries to Avoid Mention of ‘the Former Guy’ (original) (raw)
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It was President Biden’s first extended encounter with voters since Inauguration Day and was a rare opportunity for him to practice his signature brand of personal politics.
President Biden outside the White House before leaving Tuesday evening for Milwaukee.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
Feb. 17, 2021
WASHINGTON — In his first official trip away from Washington since taking office, President Biden on Tuesday offered reassurance to Americans about the availability of the coronavirus vaccines and optimism that his $1.9 trillion relief bill was the kind of ambitious plan that could restore the American economy.
“Now is the time we should be spending,” he said at a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, promoting a plan that so far has no Republican support in Congress. “Now is the time to go big.”
On the coronavirus, he said that every American who wanted a vaccine would be able to get one “by the end of July this year,” sounding a more optimistic note than he did last week when he warned that logistical hurdles would most likely mean many Americans would still not have been vaccinated by the end of summer.
“We’ll have over 600 million doses — enough to vaccinate every single American,” he said at an event that included not just his own supporters, but Trump voters and independents.
Mr. Biden predicted that “by next Christmas, I think we’ll be in a very different circumstance, godwilling, than we are today.”
The town hall’s question-and-answer format gave the president an opportunity to practice what has been his signature brand of personal politics for decades. When an independent voter asked him how her son with a pre-existing condition could get the vaccine, for instance, Mr. Biden told her, “If you’re willing, I’ll stay around after this is over and maybe we can talk a few minutes and see if I can get you some help.”
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