for defense capacities to the ukrainians. we are talking about what's going on in both the baltic and black sea, etc.. there's a whole range of things i'm sure he's trying to calculate how quickly he can do what he wants to do and what he wants to do. but he's not, he's an informed individual and i'm sure, not sure, i believe that he's calculated what the immediate, short-term, near-term, and long-term consequences for russia will be and i don't think he's made up his mind. >> your domestic agenda, you have got a lot of questions about voting rights, mr. president, but i wanted to ask you about black voters, one of your most loyal constituencies. i was in the clyburn district

yesterday, you opened the news conference talking about him. i spoke to a number of black voters who fought to get you elected and they feel that you are not fighting hard for them and their priorities and they told me that they see the push on voting rights more as a last-minute pr push than a legitimate effort to get legislation passed. what do you say to these black voters who say that you do not have their backs as you promised on the campaign trail? >> i have had their back my entire career. i have never not had their back. i started on the voting rights issues long ago. that's what got me involved in politics in the first place. i think that part of the problem is, look, there is significant disagreement in every community on whether or not the timing of assertions made by people has been timely. but i am sure that there are

those who are saying -- why didn't biden push the john lewis bill as hard as he has pushed at the last month? why didn't he push it six months ago as hard as he did now? the fact is that there is, there is a timing that is not one's own choice, dictated by events happening in country and around the world as to what the focus is and what part of the problem is as well, i have not then out in the community nearly enough. i have been here an awful lot. i find myself in a situation where i don't get a chance to look people in the eye because of both covid and things happening in washington. to be able to go out and do the

things i have always been able to do pretty well. connect with people. let them take a measure of my sincerity, of who i am. for example, as i pointed out in south carolina, you know, last time, when i was chairman of the judiciary committee, i got it extended for 25 years and i got strom thurmond to vote for it. that's what i've been doing my hort -- my whole career. so, the idea that i didn't either anticipate or because i didn't speak to it as fervently as they wanted me to earlier, in the meantime i was spending a lot of time, hours and hours and hours, talking with my colleagues on the democratic side trying to get them to agree that if in fact this occurred, if the push continued, that they would be there. anyway.

i think that's a problem of my own making by not communicating as much as i should have. you find that when you deal with members of the black caucus and others in the u.s. congress, i still have a close working relationship there. like every community, i'm sure that there are those in the community -- i'm a big labor guy, i'm sure there's people in labor saying why hasn't he done a b, c, or d. it's going to take time. >> you put vice president harris in charge of voting rights. are you satisfied with her work on this issue? can you guarantee and commit that she will be your running mate in 2024 provided that you run again? >> yes and yes. >> do you care to expand? >> there's no need to.

she can be my running mate, number one. number two, i did put her in charge and i think she's doing a good job. >> at me ask you, big picture, when youth about voting rights in the struggles you have had to unify your own party around voting rights, unity was one of your campaign promises. in your inaugural address you said your whole soul was in bringing american to get -- america together, uniting our people. people heard the speech that you gave on voting rights recently in georgia in which you describe those opposed to you as george washington -- george wallace and jefferson davis. some people took offense. what do you say to those who took offense and is this country more unified than it was when he took office? >> number one, anybody who listened to the speech, i did not say that they were going to be a george wallace or a bull connor. i said we would have a decision in history that will be marked

like it was then. you either voted on the side -- he didn't make you george wallace or bull connor. but if you didn't vote for the act back then, you were voting with those who agreed with connor. those who agreed with. so, i think mitch did a good job of making it sound like i was attacking them. you notice, i haven't attacked anybody publicly. any senator. any congressman. publicly. my disagreements with them have been communicated to them privately. my desire is still, look, i underestimated one very important thing. i never thought that republicans, like for example

they get upset. i said there were 16 members. 16 members who voted to extend the voting rights act. they got very offended by that. just stating a fact. but changed? what happened? what happened? not a single republican, not one. that's not the republican party. >> is the country more unified than when he first took office? >> the answer is based on some of the stuff we got done, i would say yes, but is not nearly as unified as it should be. i still contend, and i know you will have a right to judge me on this, i still contend that unless you can reach consensus and democracy, you cannot sustain democracy.

so, this is a real test on whether or not my counterpart in china is right or not when he says that autocracies are the only thing that worked because democracies take too long to make decisions and are too divided. i believe we are going through one of those inflection points in history. it occurs every several generations or look in more than that. where things are changing almost regardless of any particular policy. the world is changing. can big ways. you have heard me say this before. we are going to see more change in the next 10 years then in the last 50. because of technology and fundamental alterations in a lot of occurring not just because of any one individual but just the

nature of things. i think you will see a lot of transition in the question is can we keep up with it? can we maintain the democratic institutions we've had not just here but around the world to be able to generate democratic consensus on how to proceed? it's going to be hard. it's going to be hard. but it requires leadership to do it and i'm not giving up on the prospect of being able to do it. thank you. >> mr. president? >> thank you, sir. deep questions among americans about the competence of government. the messy rollout of 5g this week to the afghanistan withdrawal to testing on covid. what have you done to restore the faith of americans in the competence of government and are you satisfied by the view of the competence of your government?

>> look, let's take afghanistan. i know you all want to talk about that and that's legitimate. spending $1 trillion a week. a billion dollars a week in afghanistan. 20 years. raise your hand if you think anyone was going to be able to unify afghanistan under a single government? it's been the graveyard of empires for a solid reason. it is not susceptible to unity. number one. the question was, do i continue to spend that much money per week in the state of afghanistan , knowing that the idea of being able to succeed other than sending more body bags back home is highly, highly unusual.

my dad used to have an expression. if everything is equally important to you, nothing is important to you. there is no way to get out of afghanistan after 20 years easily. not possible. no matter when you did it. i make no apologies for what i did. i have a great concern for the women and men who were blown up on the line at the airport by a terrorist attack against them. but the military will acknowledge, and i think you will, you know a lot about it, that had we stayed and not pulled the troops out, we would be asked to put somewhere between 20 and 50,000 more troops back in. the only reason more americans weren't being killed than others is because the last president signed an agreement to get out by may the first. so everything was copacetic.

had we not gotten out, the acknowledgment is we would be putting a lot more forces in. do i feel badly, what's happening as a consequence of the incompetence of the taliban? yes, i do. but i also feel badly about what's going on in eastern congo. i feel badly about a whole range of things around the world that we cannot solve. so, i don't view that as a competence issue. the issue of whether or not there is competence in terms of whether or not we are dealing with 5g or not? the fact is that you had two enterprises, two private enterprises where one was promoting 5g and the other was airlines. private enterprises. they had government regulation. so, what i have done is pushed

as hard as i can to have 5g folks hold up and abide by what was being requested by the airlines until they could modernize so that 5g would not interfere. any 5g tower within a certain number of miles of the year or should not be operative. that is, so i understand, anything that happens that is consequential is viewed as the government's responsibility. i get that. am i satisfied with the way in which we have dealt with covid and all the things that go along with that? >> i am. i think we have done remarkably well. you know, the idea that on testing we should have done it quicker, but we have done remarkably since then. what we have is more testing

going on than anywhere in the world and we are going to continue to increase that. did we have it at the moment exactly when we should have? should we have moved a month earlier? we could have. i don't view that as somehow a mark of incompetence. think about what we did on covid. when we were pushing on astrazeneca to provide more vaccines, guess what? they didn't have the machinery to be able to do it. i physically went to michigan and stood there in the factory with the head of the, of astrazeneca and said we would provide the machinery for you, this is what we will do, we will help you do it so that you can produce the vaccine more rapidly. it's pretty hands-on stuff. we also said, when people with hospitalizations are overrunning hospitals that you have doctors

and nurses out because of covid, they have covid, we put thousands of people back in those hospitals. look at all the military personnel we have there. the first responders. nobody is ever organized. nobody is ever organized. a strategic operation to get any shots in arms by opening clinics and being able to get so many people vaccinated? what i'm doing now is not just getting significant amounts of vaccines to the rest of the world, there now needs to be a mechanical way for how they get shots in arms and we are providing them the know-how to do that. should everybody in america know that? they are just trying to figure out how to put three squares on the table and stay safe. but so i do think that the place where i was a little disappointed and wish we could have done it differently is where we did the legislation to provide the funding for covid

and the money that we provided for the states to be able to do with keeping schools open. some of them didn't do a very good job. some of them are still holding the money. i don't have the authority to do anything about that. i don't think that's particularly confit -- competent. they could have gone faster. so, i understand the frustration. i forget which cabinet member set it to barack obama where something was going on and he said, well, you can be sure mr. president that of the millions of employees out there that you have, somebody is screwing up right now. you know? it's just, you have to look at things on balance, the way we use to. what is their trajectory of the country? right direction now? how can we say it's not?

i understand the overwhelming frustration, fear, and concern with regards to inflation and covid. i get it. if i told you that we started, first year creating 6 million jobs? get unemployment down to 3.9%, you would look at me like you are nuts. >> with as much experience as you entered the office with, after sitting here for more than an hour, i'm not sure i heard you say that if you would do anything differently in the second year of your term? are you satisfied with your team at the white house? >> i'm satisfied with the team and there are three things i'm going to do differently now that i've gotten the critical crises out of the way in the sense of knowing exactly where we are going. undergone, get out of this place more often.

go out and talk to the public. i'm going to do public forum. i'm going to interface with them and make the case for what we have already done and why it's important and what we will do in what will happen if they support what else i want to do. number two, i'm bringing in more and more, like you, i'm not complaining. 12, 14 hours a day. no complaints, i mean it sincerely. but now that the big chunks are in place and we know the direction, i'm going to be out there seeking the advice of experts outside. from academia to editorial writers and think tanks. i'm bringing them in just like i did early on. bringing in those historians to get their perspective on what we should be doing. seeking more input, more information. more constructive criticism. third thing we are going to do a

lot more of is beginning situation where i'm able to -- i'm going to be deeply involved in these off year elections. we are going to be raising a lot of money and out there making sure that we are helping all those candidates and go out and make the case in plain, simple language as to what it is we have done, what we want to do and why we think it's important. >> [indiscernible] ask how many more hours in my doing this? happy to stick around. >> [indiscernible] >> you always ask me the nicest questions. none of the make a lot of sense to me, but. >> let's try our way. it's a new year. why are you trying so hard in your first year to pull the

country so far to the left? >> well, i'm not. i don't know what you consider to be too far to the left. if we are in fact talking about making sure we have the money for covid, making sure we had the money to put together the bipartisan infrastructure and that we are able to provide those things that significantly reduced the burden on working-class people. i don't know how that is pulling to the left. you might recall you guys have been trying to convince me that i am bernie sanders. i'm not. i like him, but i'm not bernie sanders. i'm not a socialist. i'm a mainstream democrat and i have been. if you notice, 48 of the 50 democrats supported me in the senate.

virtually everything i have asked. yes, sir? >> a moment ago you were asked whether or not you believed we would have free and fair elections in 2022 if some of these state legislatures reformed their voting protocols. you said that it depends. do you think that they would in any way be illegitimate? >> yeah, it would be easy for them to be legitimate. imagine if, in fact, trump had succeeded in convincing pence to not count the votes. >> in regards to 2022, sir. >> 2022, imagine if those attempts to say the count was not legit, they had to recount it, discard the following votes. i mean, sure. i'm not saying it's going to be legit.

the increase, the prospect of being illegitimate is a direct proportion to not being able to get these reforms passed. but i don't think you are going to see, you won't see me and i don't think you will see the democratic party give up on coming back on assuming the attempt failed today. >> one more, sir. you campaigned and ran on a return to civility and i know that you dispute the characterization that you call folks who oppose those bills as bull connor and george wallace but you said you as you said they would be in the same camp. >> i didn't say that. go back and read what i said. tell me if you think i called anyone who voted on the side of the position taken bible connor that they were bull connor.

it's an interesting reading of english. i assume you got into journalism because you like to write. >> did you expect that would work with senators mansion or cinema should mark >> here's the thing, there are certain things that are so consequential, you have to speak from your heart as well as your head. i was speaking out forcibly on what i think to be at stake. that's what it is. by the way, no one, no one forgets who was on the side of king or bull connor. the history books will note it. i was making that case. don't think this is a freebie. you don't get to vote this way and somehow it goes away. this will stick with you the rest of your career and long after you are gone.

>> whoa, whoa, whoa. "bloomberg technology -- [indiscernible] >> how long are you guys ready to go? i've gone an hour and 20 minutes, i can keep going. how long? another hour? two? [indiscernible] >> i tell you what, folks. i'm going to go another 20 minutes, until quarter of an ok? yes, sir? >> i will wait for the microphone. >> i want to thank my communications staff, a great help your. [laughter] >> on the coronavirus, we are practically approaching nearly one million americans who have died and i would like to ask you why it is during your virtual summit in november with the

chinese president that you didn't press for transparency and if that has anything to do with your son's involvement in an investment firm controlled by chinese state owned entities. >> the question -- the answers i did raise the question of transparency. i spent a lot of time with him. the fact is they are just not being transparent. >> transparency on the coronavirus origins. >> yes. >> you did? is there a reason you're press staff was unaware of that question mark what did you say to the chinese president? >> they weren't with me the entire time. look, i made it clear that i thought that china had an obligation to be more forthcoming on exactly what the source of the virus was and where it came from. yes? >> mr. president, i would like to ask you about foreign policy. one of the first priorities you declared when you came to office

was to end the war in yemen. the catastrophic war in yemen. you appointed a special envoy. today one of your allies, the united arab emirates, is asking your administration to put back the rebels and militias on the terror list. are you going to do that? how are you going to end the war in yemen, sir? >> the end -- the answer is it's under consideration and ending the war in yemen takes two parties and it's going to be difficult. >> thank you very much for this honor. james rosen, newsmax. i would like to raise a delicate subject but with utmost respect for your life accomplishments and the high office you hold. a poll released this morning by politico morning consult found 49% of registered voters

disagreeing with the statement joe biden is mentally fit. not even a majority of democrats who risk on the strongly affirmed that statement. >> i will let you all make the judgment as to whether you are correct. -- they are correct. >> why do you suppose such large segments of the american electorate have come to harbor such profound concerns about your cognitive abilities? thank you. >> i have no idea. yes, sir. >> thanks, mr. president. i appreciate it. i wanted to ask about attention that has been in the press conference on unifying the country. you campaigned on two things. one, accomplishing big things in the other was the ability to unify the country and even today you talked about a sort of different posture with republicans and i wonder if you

still think it's possible to do both of those things. >> we have to. we have to. long as i hold public office i will continue to attempt it. >> around this time last year when you were campaigning in georgia one of the things you told people was the power is literally in your hands. if voters give democrats the house in the senate and the presidency, all these big things can get accomplished. we have seen stalemates and things being stymied. why should folks believe you this time around? >> can you thing of any other president who has done as much in one year? name one. i'm serious. you guys talk about how nothing is happening. i don't think there has been much on any incoming president's plate that has been a bigger menu than the plate i had to. not complaining. the fact of the matter is we got

a lot done. an awful lot done. and there is more to get done. look, let me ask you a rhetorical question. no, i won't. anyway. thank you. yes? be careful, don't get hurt, man. >> mr. president, thank you. sebastian smith may have pp or you another question on ukraine. ukraine borders four nato countries. how concerned are you that a real conflagration in ukraine, with the russians really going in there, it could suck in nato countries on the border and you get an actual nato russia confrontation of some kind? secondly, are you entertaining the thought of a summit with

vladimir putin as a way to perhaps try and put the whole thing to bed, address concerns and negotiate a way out of this? >> the last part, yes. we've had three meetings that we talked about. we talked about we would go from there. we talked about a summit a week before when ukraine came up in terms of strategic doctrine and what the relationship would be. i still think of that is a possibility, number one. number two, i'm very concerned, very concerned that be -- the or that is worse is the one that is unintended. what i'm concerned about is this could get out of hand. because of what you said. the borders of ukraine and what russia may or may not do. i am hoping that vladimir putin

understands that he is short of a full-blown nuclear war. he is not in a good position to dominate the world. i don't think he thinks that, but it is a concern. that is why we have to be very careful about how we move forward. to make it clear to him that their prices to pay that could in fact cost his country a lot. of course you have to be concerned when you have nuclear powers. if he invades, it will be the most consequential thing that is happened in the world in terms of war and peace since world war ii. yes? reporter: nearly two years have passed since the beginning of the global coronavirus outbreak

and today again you acknowledge that americans are frustrated and tired. aced on your conversations with your health advisors, what restrictions do you imagine being on americans this time last year and what does the new normal look like for social gatherings and travel to you? pres. biden: i hope the new normal will be that we don't still have 30 million people not vaccinated. the new normal is that people have seen with their own interest is and have taken advantage of what we have available. number two, with the pill that appears to be as efficacious as it seems to be, that we will be able to deal with this virus in a way that after the fact, you have the ability to make sure you don't get very sick. number three, i would hope that what happens is the rest of the world does what i am doing and provides significant amounts of

the vaccine to the rest of the world. because it is not sufficient that we just have this country not have the virus or be able to control the virus, but we can't keep the new variant out. it requires one of the things that i want to do and that we are contemplating figuring out how to do, that we are contemplating how to get done, is how do we move in a direction where the world itself is vaccinated? it's not enough just to vaccinate 340 million people in the united states. that's not enough. we have to do it and we have to do a lot more than we are doing now and that's why we have to continue to keep the commitment of keeping vaccines and available cures for the rest of the world. reporter: how do you plan to win

back moderates and independents who passed the ballot for you in 2020, but the polls indicate they aren't happy with the way you are doing your job now? pres. biden: i don't believe the polls. reporter: a follow-up on some of the questions about the vaccination program. you have given dozens of speeches urging americans to get vaccinated. you have said it's people's patriotic duty. there have been very few mentions of the fact that young children under the age of five still in the third year of this pandemic don't have access to the vaccine. can you speak to frustrated parents a little bit about why that continues to be the case and when that might change? pres. biden: the science hasn't reached a point where they are convinced it is safe. that's what they are doing now. i was asked that question three month ago about people between the ages of seven and 12.

finally, they got to the point where they felt secure in the number of tests they had done that it was safe. it will come. i am not a scientist, i can't tell you when, but it is very important that we get the next piece. reporter: on build back better, you said it was going to be broken up into chunks. the climate seems to have broad support. you mentioned senator manchin is a supporter of early childcare. you left out the child tax credit. is it safe to assume that that is a piece that the extension of that is likely one of those components that may have to wait -- pres. biden: there are two really big components that i feel strong about that i'm not sure i can get into the package. one is the childcare tax credit. the other is help for cost community colleges. they are massive things that i

have run on. i'm going to keep coming back at try to get chunks or all of that. reporter: thank you. this is my first press conference, it is good to meet you in person. pres. biden: we always have long press conferences. [laughter] reporter: awesome. number one, you say you want to convey your message by getting out there into the country. are you planning to travel also to south america and other countries in the western hemisphere given the fact that china has gained a lot of influence in the region? the second question is, what would be her message for residents in this country who are struggling every time they go to the gas station or grocery store to see the prices going higher? and the pharmacy? i happen to come from south texas, but i saw a lot of people

struggling financially in the last few months. i wonder what is the message you want to spread to them? pres. biden: i've tried to answer that seven different ways today about how to deal with inflation. let me answer the first question. i spend a lot of time in south america. and in latin america. when i was vice president, i spent the bulk of my eight years in latin america. i am in contact with the leaders of the countries in south america. we are working closely making sure we are doing everything for example to deal with helping the countries in question particularly those in central america to help them with their ability to deal with -- people don't sit around in guatemala and say let's sell everything we have and give the money to a

coyote, take us across a dangerous trip through central america up through mexico and sneak us across the border, drop us in the desert, won't that be fun. people leave because they have real problems. one of the things i have done when i was vice president that i had support with is to provide billions of dollars to be able to say to this countries, why are people leaving and how are you going to reform your own system? that is what we have worked on for a long time. it still needs a lot more work. we are focusing on that. i also believe i have spent a lot of time talking about and dealing with policy having to do with nicolas maduro who is little more than a dictator right now. same thing in -- not the same thing but chile as well as

argentina. i made a speech when i was vice president saying if we were smart, we have an opportunity to make the western hemisphere a democratic hemisphere. we were moving in the right direction under the last administration, the obama biden administration. so much damage was done of the foreign policy decisions the last president made in latin america, central america, south america, that we now have when i call for some of the democracies , i called and a number of nations showed up, what is going to allow us to generate -- we have actually had a reduction in the number of democracies in the world. it seems to me there is nothing more important. when i was a kid in college, we stood talk about america's backyard.

-- we used to talk about america's backyard. it's not america's backyard. south of the border is america's front yard and we are equal. we have to work very hard on. the trouble is, we are great difficulty making the the mistakes that were made in the last four years and is going to take some time. gentlemen in the back? then i will go to the site. reporter: thank you. thank you for holding this press conference. i hope there are more than. pres. biden: anytime you have an extra three hours, we can do it. [laughter] reporter: we will stay for a couple more parted said you were surprised by the republican obstruction of your agenda. didn't the democrats take the same tactic to barack obama? why did you think they would treat you any differently than they treated him?

pres. biden: they weren't nearly as obstructionist as they are now. you have a number of republicans we work with closely. from john mccain, a number of republicans. even back in those days, lindsey graham. the difference here is there seems to be a desire to work. i'm not saying my agenda, i'm saying what is their agenda? what are they for? they had an agenda back in the administration in the eight years we were president and vice president. i don't know what their agenda is now. what is it? american public is outraged the tax structure we have in america. they are proposing -- what are they proposing to do about it? anything? i haven't heard anything parted the american public is outraged

about the state of the environment. what have they done? anything to the mill your rate the climate change other than to deny it exists? the difference between then and now is not only the announcement that was made anything to stop barack obama, forget that part. what eventually happened. we were able to gets things done. we were able to work through some things. on the stuff that was really consequential, it was a real fight. i don't think there was a time, i wonder what would be the republican platform right now? what is their position on taxes? what is their position on human rights? what is their position on the cost of prescription drugs?

i honest to god don't know what they are for. yet i know a lot of the senators and congressmen and i know they have things they want to support. whether they are things i want or not. you don't hear much about that. every once in a while, when you hear something that is a consensus, it's important but a small item and it doesn't get much coverage. that means there's not much discussion about it. no matter how strongly one supports the republican and/or supports the former president of the united states, i don't know how we can't look at what happened on january 6 and think that's a problem. it's a real problem. reporter: one more question. pres. biden: by the way, you've

asked me some easy questions and i will give you quick answers. reporter: there has been increasing concern among democrats that even if schools do continue to open and i get the most of them are now open, republicans will weaponized the narrative of you and other leading democrats to allow them to stay closed in the midterms next year. obviously, that issue has a lot of traction with suburban parents. pres. biden: i'm confused by the question. reporter: could school re-openings or closures become a potent midterm issue? >> pres. biden: as time goes on,

the voter who is just trying to figure out how to take care of their family, put three squares on the table, stay safe, pay their mortgage or their credit center, it's becoming much more informed on the motives of some of the political players and political parties. i think that they are not going to be as susceptible to believing some of the outlandish things that have been said and continue to be set. every president not necessarily in the first 12 months, but every president in the first couple of years most every

president or for the last presidents have been -- have had pulling numbers that are 44%. this idea that one poll showed me at 33 -- 43%, the average is 44% 45%. one at 49%. the idea that the american people are tried to sift their way through what's real and what's fake. i have never seen a time when the political coverage, the choice the political coverage the american looks to has as

much impact on what they believe. they try to get reinforcement on their views. whether it's fox or msnbc. one of the things i find it fascinating that is happening and you all are dealing with it every day and it will impact on how things move is that a lot of the speculation and the polling data shows that the cables -- the tables are heading south. we are losing viewership. fox is ok for a while, but the rest are predicted to be not very much in the mix in the next 45 years -- four to five years. i do know that everybody has put themselves in certain alleys and they have decided that how many

people who watch msnbc also watch fox other than they are a politician trying to figure out what's going on in both places. i'm no expert in any of this, but the fact is i think you have to acknowledge that what gets covered now is necessarily a little bit different than what gets covered in the past. i have an issue with the nature of the way things get covered. it has been my observation over the years the public life changed. it changed because of everything from a thing called the internet , the way in which we have self identified perspectives based on what channel you turn on, what

network you look at. it's never quite been like that. reporter: thank you very much for standing for our questions. we hope the public has found it as enlightening as we have. pres. biden: that i can still stand, it's amazing. reporter: we very much appreciated. the question i have is about accountability. on the coronavirus and the government's response to it. whether it is confusion over what style of mask to wear, when to test, how to test, where to test. the public is confused and you see that in the drop off in the polling on this question. why did you tell jeff were satisfied with your team? why are you not willing or interested in making any changes

at the cdc or other agencies given the messages have been so confusing? pres. biden: the messages to the extent they have been confusing is that they are learning more about what is needed and not needed. the fact is that the one piece that has gotten a lot of attention is the communications capacity of the cdc. she came along and said i'm a scientist and i'm learning. i'm learning how to deal with stating what is the case that we have observed. look, i think it's a little bit like saying when we withdrew the whole issue of how to deal with polio. what was said in the beginning, it's changed a little bit and we move this way and that way. when we deal with anything else,

this was a brand-new virus. a brand-new phenomenon. some of it was deadly. other was more commendable. -- communicable. this is an unfolding story. it's the nation of where diseases spread. we're going to learn more about covid-19. i look at it this way. think about how astounding it was within the timeframe it took to be able to cope with a vaccine. -- to be able to come up with a vaccine. it was pretty amazing how rapidly they came up with a vaccine. it saved hundreds of thousands of lives. did everything get right? now. -- no. anyway, i'm talking too much. reporter: i have two releasable

questions. you campaigned on canceling $10,000 in student loans. you still plan to do so and when? my second question, do you plan to reach out to republicans like mitt romney to talk about reforming the electoral contact? pres. biden: i talked to mitt romney on other occasions and i reached out to the minority leader as well. at the time that he made his speech. i have no reluctance to reach out to any republican and i have made it clear i have now had the opportunity to travel because of funerals and eulogies i have made and attended and congressman and senators have come along with me. somewhere between 20 and 25

senators and congress persons have traveled with me. you should ask them, i have said for the hours that we have flown together, sit back in the conference table and talk to them. ask them questions, they asked me questions. i learned a heck of a lot. as president, you don't have the ability to do that is much as i would like to be able to do it. one of the things that i do think that has been made clear to me speaking of polling is the public doesn't want me to be the president senator. they want me to be the president and let senators be senators. i have made many mistakes. if i've made a mistake, i am used to negotiating to get things done and in the past, i have been relatively successful at it in the u.s. senate even as vice president. the role as president is a different role.

it is now almost 6:00. with all do respect, i'm going to see you the next conference. thank you. >> you've been listening to president joe biden giving his press conference concluding his first year in office. he spoke on a range of issues including inflation saying the fed is responsible for reining in prices. he also received questions on russia and ukraine saying he's planning to hold a summit with president putin. he also asked -- he was asked about china. he said he is not ready to ease tariffs and china has not been transparent on covid-19. we just heard from president biden intent on making it clear that he understood the frustrations of the american public on inflation, covid-19. what stood out to you? >> a wide-ranging conference and

he stood out saying he was open to answering questions. i watched the sun go down. two important places. one was on inflation, he said he understands the american people are frustrating -- frustrated. he said he doesn't pay attention to the polls. if you look at the polls, this is what the americans want the administration to focus on. he said this is about the federal reserve. it is within the fed's mandate to do that and likely it is time as jay powell pretty much signaled that it's the time to recalibrate. next week, when we hear from jay powell that will be an incredibly important press conference. the other big mama was on foreign policy. he did signal -- the other big moment was on foreign policy. we know that the the ukrainian

president has offered up a meeting between ukraine, russia, and the knighted states. attach like, that is on the horizon. >> at the white house after that wide-ranging press conference from president joe biden. lots more coming up on daybreak australia. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: we are counting down to asia's major market open. shery: our top stories this hour, asian traders way a tough session on wall street with the nasdaq falling into correction territory. president biden marks one year in