Biden Cracks Wise To Media Over Calmer-Than-Expected Border During Weekend Bike Ride
President Joe Biden took questions from reporters during a weekend bike ride, and had pointed remarks about the calmer-than-expected border after the lifting of Title 42.
President Biden took a little shot at the media as he answered questions during a bike ride in Gordons Pond State Park in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Sunday evening. Asked how things were going at the border, the president replied “Much better than you all expected.”
The president took a few other questons as well, including on the debt limit. From a White House pool report:
POTUS rode a bicycle along a path in Gordon’s Pond State Park flanked by agents. He went past the pool, which is positioned in the parking lot at 4:39 PM and again at 5:30 PM
He was wearing a helmet and took some questions from the pool. Some quotes below. Please check against transcript.
On meeting with leaders Tuesday he said “I think so.”
On leaving for the G7: “That’s my plan as it stands now.”
On tougher work requirements he said that he voted for the “tougher aid programs” in the law now but “For Medicaid it’s a different story, so I’m waiting to hear what their exact proposal is.”
Turkey election: “I hope whoever wins wins. There’s enough problems in that part of the world.”
How he feels on debt ceiling talks with GOP: “It’s never good to characterize a negotiation in the middle of the negotiations. I remain optimistic because I am a congenital optimist. But I really think there is a desire on their part as well as ours to reach an agreement. And I think we’ll be able to do it.”
On how Border is going “Much better than you all expected.”
On plans to visit the border: “Not in the near term no. It would just be disruptive.”
He said numbers at the border have gone down but “We have a lot more work to do. We need some more help from the Congress”
Said he got FLOTUS an orchid for Mother’s Day and that his daughter is here.
He departed and at 5:38 PM we got a lid.
Some reporters caught parts of the bike ride on video.
Thursday at midnight was the deadline for the lifting of Title 42, the Trump-era COVID-19 policy that restricted the ability of migrants to remain on US soil as they seek asylum due to the public health emergency. Critics of the Biden administration have been sounding the alarm for a catastrophic wave of migrants, and even President Joe Biden acknowledged he expected there to be some “chaos” at the border following the end of the policy.
But so far the flow of migrants has been much lower than expected.
Watch above via CNN.
