Biden on community safety: “We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”
That statement is something many in Biden's own party would not agree with.
This speech seems perfectly calibrated to guarantee another two or three percent drop in Biden's approval ratings.
Fifty-three minutes and counting… This speech did not need to be this long.
Biden says we'll be able to develop vaccines within 100 days of new variants being identified. Omicron was announced in late November meaning that were we to develop vaccines for it within 100 days, we'd have a vaccine ready around about now, after the wave is over.
Biden lays out four step plan to “stay on guard” against Covid that includes the use of vaccines and treatments, ending shutdowns and staying prepared for new variants.
“Over the past year, we’ve gotten much better at detecting new variants,” he says. “If necessary, we’ll be able to deploy new vaccines within 100 days instead of many more months or years.”
Biden saying we should put aside partisanship to “reset” is a dog whistle that was ill-considered.
“I know some are talking about 'living with Covid-19'…I say that we will never just accept living with COVID-19.”
COVID isn't going anywhere. Using the “eradicate” rhetoric is the language of continual control.
“We can end the shutdown of schools and businesses,” Biden says. “We have the tools we need.”
“It’s time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again,” he adds. “People working from home can feel safe to begin to return to their offices.”
He says the majority of federal workers will return to work in-person.
“Our schools are open. Let’s keep it that way. Our kids need to be in school.”
Biden claims “Thanks to the progress we have made this past year, COVID-19 need no longer control our lives.” This is absurd. Over the past year, we've had two major variants crop up and we're just coming out of a major surge. The disease followed the trajectory it was going to, and it has nothing to do with any “progress” accomplished by Biden.
“I’ve ordered more pills than anyone in the world has” is a sentence that is likely true however you read it.