President Joe Biden said he was concerned that the upcoming presidential election might not be peaceful, using a surprise appearance at the White House Briefing Room on Friday to suggest that former president Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric may lead to a \u201cdangerous\u201d outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident it\u2019ll be free and fair. I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019ll be peaceful,\u201d Biden said of the election. \u201cThe things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out, when he didn\u2019t like the outcome of the election, were very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s comments, which also referenced the refusal by Trump\u2019s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), to acknowledge the former president\u2019s 2020 election loss, came during his first-ever visit to a space where reporters typically question White House officials. The president sought to use the opportunity to boast about strong economic news but ended up fielding questions about the crisis in the Middle East, the presidential contest and even the pope.<\/p>\n
Biden, who has held fewer news conferences than his predecessors, seemed eager to engage with reporters after a strong jobs report Friday and a deal to end a dockworkers strike. He also seemed eager to point out that his detractors \u2014 some of whom had helped force him out of the presidential race in July \u2014 had been proven wrong by the spate of good news coming into view during his final months in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside experts were wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cInflation has come down. Wages have gone up faster than prices. Interest rates are down. A record 19 million new business applications have been filed for. The stock market continues to reach new heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
The appearance came as Biden \u2014 as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz \u2014 have come under scrutiny for avoiding regular interactions with the media and unscripted moments. Surprise visits to the briefing room reflect a tradition that spans several presidencies, and one that Biden had skipped throughout his tenure before Friday.<\/p>\n
Most of the questions the president fielded after his opening remarks were about the crisis in the Middle East, where the White House has been struggling to avert a regional war.<\/p>\n
Biden said Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should \u201cremember\u201d that his administration has helped Israel more than any other, in response to a question about whether Israel\u2019s actions were part of an effort to influence the U.S. election.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None,\u201d Biden said. \u201cAnd I think maybe Bibi should remember that. And whether he\u2019s trying to influence the election, I don\u2019t know, but I\u2019m not counting on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden added that Israel had a right to respond to Iran\u2019s recent attack but also suggested that if he were in Netanyahu\u2019s position, targeting Iranian oil facilities would not be his top priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if I were in their shoes, I\u2019d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,\u201d Biden said, reiterating that Israel had not yet decided on how to respond.<\/p>\n
Biden also said he was considering oil sanctions against Iran, but added that he did not want to discuss those deliberations publicly. The remarks came after Biden suggested Thursday \u201cwe\u2019re discussing that\u201d when asked whether he would support an attack on Iranian oil facilities by Israel, though he cut himself off before completing his thought. Oil prices jumped after Biden\u2019s comment.<\/p>\n
Biden on Friday also responded to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) recently dismissing the latest jobs report as \u201cfake,\u201d laughing before rejecting the comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to be very careful here. If you notice anything that MAGA Republicans don\u2019t like, they call fake,\u201d Biden said, before adding that the numbers were real.<\/p>\n
The latest jobs report showed that U.S. employers added 254,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent in September.<\/p>\n
At one point, Biden was asked for his response to Pope Francis\u2019s call for a day of prayer and fasting on Oct. 7, the first anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.<\/p>\n
Biden said he would pray and fast.<\/p>\n
The president also expressed support for Harris, who is running to replace him, saying \u201cwe\u2019re singing from the same song sheet\u201d and giving her credit for the administration\u2019s accomplishments.<\/p>\n
Biden, who has only sporadically campaigned for Harris since endorsing her in July, plans to visit Wisconsin and Pennsylvania next week \u2014 though not on behalf of Harris\u2019s campaign. His Pennsylvania visit will be in support of Sen. Bob Casey (D), who is running for reelection. On Thursday, as former president Barack Obama begins a stretch of campaigning for Harris, Biden will be leaving the country for Germany and Angola.<\/p>\n
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden had been planning to campaign this week but changed his schedule after Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president is going to be president. He\u2019s going to be commander in chief,\u201d Jean-Pierre said. \u201cAnd obviously he\u2019s going to be supporting his vice president.\u201d<\/p>\n
Set to leave office in less than four months, Biden appeared in a playful mood at the end of a week that began with a series of crises \u2014 Hurricane Helene, the looming U.S. port strike and the escalating Middle East conflict. While many of those issues continue to pose challenges, the solid jobs report and dockworkers deal helped the president end the week with positive news.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi, my name\u2019s Joe Biden,\u201d the president said with a smile as he approached the lectern in front of a surprised press corps.<\/p>\n
As Biden was leaving the room about 15 minutes later, one reporter asked whether he would reconsider his decision to drop out of the presidential race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m back in,\u201d he said, laughing as he departed.<\/p>\n
Maegan Vasquez contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden said he was concerned that the upcoming presidential election might not be peaceful, using a surprise appearance at the White House Briefing Room on Friday to suggest that former president Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric may lead to a \u201cdangerous\u201d outcome. \u201cI\u2019m confident it\u2019ll be free and fair. I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019ll be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}