President Biden, who is traveling to Philadelphia because “it’s my wedding anniversary,” spoke to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. “Anyway,” said Biden, “the reason I’m excited about today, just like we did last week with the environmental groups, I think I’m told this is the first time ever this early that every single union has endorsed. I’m told that has never happened. And the good news about that is I also met yesterday with some business people. Business people and unions are beginning to work together. So I’m excited about this being the beginning of something big, and we’ll begin changing the economic balance.”
The President then answered a series of questions.
What kind of campaign do you think you’re gonna have? Is it going to be a nasty?
Biden: It depends on who the nominee is.
Can Blinken ease tensions with China on this trip?
Biden: China has some legitimate difficulties unrelated to the United States. I think one of the things that balloon caused was not so much that it got shot down. But I don’t think the leadership knew where it was, and knew what was in it, and knew what was going on. I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional. I’m hoping that over the next several months I’ll be meeting with Xi again, and talking about legitimate differences we have but also how to get along.
Are you going to make it easier for Ukraine to join NATO?
Biden: No. Because they’ve got to meet the same standards. So we’re not going to make it easy.
Do you have a comment on Russia and a deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus?
Biden: I’ve commented on that many times. It’s totally irresponsible.
