- Four historic crises, all at the same time.
The worst pandemic in over 100 years,
the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,
the most compelling call for racial justice since the '60s,
and the undeniable realities of climate change.
- When Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination
for president in August of 2020,
he framed his candidacy around four issues,
or crises, affecting the nation.
Since his inauguration, more than 400,000 Americans
have died from the coronavirus,
the economy has yet to regain more than 3 million jobs
it lost during the pandemic,
the world experienced one of its warmest years on record,
and Congress failed to act on police reform
and voting-rights measures,
even as some states enacted voting restrictions.
And despite having passed coronavirus relief
and infrastructure packages, Biden yet again finds himself
running into the unpredictability of the virus,
as well as the limits of his office.
- President Biden is to be commended
for the exceptional work
that he and his team did when it came to vaccine distribution,
and that was our number-one, number-two,
number-three focus for those initial months.
- Today we hit 200 million shots.
- President Biden and his team
really put all their eggs into the vaccine basket
and neglected several other components.
One is testing.
- Should we have done more testing earlier?
Yes. But we're doing more now.
We've gone from zero at-home tests a year ago
to 375 million tests
on the market in just this month.
- On the economy, Biden has focused his actions
on ending the pandemic-induced recession.
One year later, he has largely accomplished this,
but has continued to face surging inflation,
supply-chain bottlenecks,
and the recovery's uneven toll on the lowest-earning Americans.
- The big disappointment last year, I think,
was the surge in inflation, and a lot of that was related
to the disruptions to global supply chains,
which was precipitated by the delta variant of the virus.
And it not only hit us hard,
but it hit the rest of the world even harder, particularly Asia,
where a lot of the supply chains begin.
- In my view, we've already waited too long to deal
with this climate crisis, and we can't wait any longer.
- On climate change,
Biden's agenda faces an uphill climb.
He rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement
and has issued new rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
But court challenges and Democratic opposition
to Build Back Better threaten to stall his climate efforts.
- President Biden and Vice President Harris
walked into a climate mess.
We've been able to at least come together
on some legislation that pushes climate infrastructure,
resiliency, and adaptation.
- And on racial justice,
the filibuster and Democratic opposition
have stalled much of Biden's agenda,
especially when it comes to voting rights
and reducing criminal-justice disparities.
- We act like that we're gonna obstruct people from voting.
That's not gonna happen.
- Racial justice was a key issue on the top of voters' minds.
One year later, we are essentially in the same place.
- A procedural rule should not prevent protection
of a constitutional right like voting.
This administration has waited, in my opinion, too long
to really put its political capital behind this thrust.
- We must find a way to pass these voting-rights bills.
And if that bare minimum is blocked,
we have no option but to change the Senate rules,
including getting rid of the filibuster for this.
- Still, Biden has fulfilled many of the promises
that he made during the 2020 campaign.
He passed a coronavirus relief package in March
and a bipartisan infrastructure bill in November.
He expanded testing and vaccinations
to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
He implemented new regulations to combat climate change.
And he even extended the pause
on federal student loan repayments.
- The economy's in a much better place today
than it was a year ago.
Unemployment -- that's probably the best benchmark
to get your mind around how things are going -- is 3.
9%.
That's pretty good by any historical standard.
- 400 anti-voting bills have been introduced in 48 states.
It will absolutely have an impact
on these November midterms
if we don't pass federal voting protections.
- Americans are living in very different realities.
That's going to be the big challenge going forward,
is how do we all adapt to what it means to live with COVID.
But that depends on a very clear strategy
and disciplined message from the White House,
which currently is missing.