After 1,080 days as president, Joe Biden on Friday decided to pop in and take questions in the White House briefing room for the first time<\/b>
\nAfter 1,080 days as president, Joe Biden on Friday decided to pop in and take questions in the White House briefing room for the first time, striding in with a grin after a strong monthly jobs report and the temporary settlement of a strike by ports workers.
The president has been less available than his recent predecessors to questions from White House press corps, making his surprise appearance welcome to the gathered reporters who waited as his press secretary’s daily briefing was moved up 15 minutes, then delayed for nearly one hour.
The president stepped through the press room’s blue door in a dark gray suit and red tie and proceeded to make news in response to questions about comments on the 2024 presidential election, the latest jobs numbers and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
The 81-year old stepped aside from the Democratic nomination this summer, backing Vice President Kamala Harris instead. He acknowledged doubts about whether the November election would be peaceful, given comments by former President Donald Trump that the results could be rigged.
\u201cI\u2019m confident it will be free and fair. I don\u2019t know whether it will be peaceful,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThe things that Trump has said, and the the things that he said last time when he didn\u2019t like the outcome of the election, were very dangerous.\u201d
Biden has tried to rebut a political movement that has at times openly trafficked in conspiracy theories, with the latest revolving around the government reporting Friday that employers added 254,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%.
\u201cAnother fake jobs report out from Biden-Harris government today,\u201d Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., posted on social media. \u201cBut all the fake numbers in the world aren\u2019t going to fool people dealing with the Biden-Harris economic disaster every day.“
The jobs reports are legitimate and have capped a solid run for the U.S. economy. Growth has stayed solid even as the inflation rate has dropped from a four-decade high in 2022 to an annual rate of 2.5%.
Consumer confidence has been weak relative to overall economic growth, a sign that many people still don\u2019t feel the strength seen in the latest jobs and inflation numbers. But Biden stressed that he was operating on valid data despite unfounded claims of falsification by supporters of Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again movement.
\u201cIf you notice, anything the MAGA Republicans don’t like they call \u2018fake,\u2019\u201d Biden said. „The job numbers are what the job numbers are. They’re real. They’re sincere.“
The president also highlighted the deal reached Thursday to suspend a strike by 45,000 dockworkers on East and Gulf coast ports until Jan. 15, creating time to try to hash out a new contract.
Still, challenges remain for Biden as his final months as president involve the risk of a wider war in the Middle East.
Since Hamas attacked Israel nearly a year ago, Israel has retaliated by bombarding the Gaza region in ways that have raised human rights concerns, as well as killing Hezbollah leaders and launching airstrikes in Lebanon. On Tuesday, Iran fired at least 180 missiles into Israel and there are concerns about additional retaliation that could cause the conflict to deepen.
When asked, Biden clarified his comments from a day earlier about Israel possibly striking Iranian oil facilities, which caused the price of the commodity to jump on the prospect of supplies being squeezed.
\u201cLook, the Israelis have not concluded what they\u2019re going to do in terms of a strike“, Biden said Friday. „That\u2019s under discussion. I think if I were in their shoes, I\u2019d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields.\u201d
The president emphasized that he and Harris are \u201csinging from the same song sheet\u201d on foreign and domestic policy, calling her a \u201cmajor player in everything we’ve done.\u201d
As Biden began to leave the room, he was asked if he would reconsider his decision to exit the race. Biden cocked his head and smiled.
\u201cI\u2019m back in,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n