Jen Psaki: (36:54) Go ahead.
Speaker 9: (36:55)
Thank you, Jen, [inaudible 00:36:56]. I have a question for myself and then a question for someone who cannot be here because of the social distance polices.
Jen Psaki: (37:02) Okay, sure.
Speaker 9: (37:02)
My question is this, and it’s about unity again, I’ve heard from conservatives who are afraid that the President is going to try to pull back religious conscience exemptions for groups like Little Sisters of the Poor. The President pledged he would do that in July when Little Sisters won a case in the Supreme court, the health and human services nominee, Javier Bisera pursued that line of going after the exemptions as Attorney General, California. What’s the President going to do on that?
Jen Psaki: (37:32)
I haven’t discussed that particular issue with him. I’m happy to circle back with you, but there’s not a change in his position from what he said earlier this summer. Did you have another question?
Mary: (37:42)
I have a question from Adam Longo of WUSA9? He says we saw the President warmly great Mayor Bosley during the parade yesterday, she is pushing for the DC Statehood measure to be on the President’s desk within 100 days. Will the administration get behind this bill and does the President support it?
Jen Psaki: (38:01)
I hate to disappoint you, but I will have to circle back with you on that as well. There’s quite a bit going on. I have not discussed DC Statehood with him in the last 36 hours.
Mary: (38:10) [inaudible 00:38:10]
Jen Psaki: (38:11) Sounds great. Go ahead in the back.
Speaker 10: (38:13)
Yeah. Thanks, Jen. I wanted to circle back on something COVID related. I know the President has obviously made a priority of resuming in-person learning in the first hundred days. I wonder, is the administration planning to issue any kind of uniform guidance to states on whether it’s reopening schools, reopen businesses, indoor dining, stuff like that, or are you all planning to just kind of leave it to states to do sort of a patchwork based on those situations?
Jen Psaki: (38:40)
Well, as Dr. Fauci conveyed, our objective is to ensure that health and medical experts are leading the effort in determining guidance, and also communicating it with the public whenever possible. And any guidance would come, of course, as you know, from the CDC. And we will, of course, defer to that. But part of our priority and our focus here is on providing more engagement with states, more clear guidance from the federal level in terms of how we’re planning to operate, what data we’re seeing, how vaccines are being distributed, what we see as the challenges. And that communication has been lacking as we understand it from our conversations in the past few months, so that is what we will focus on improving in the months ahead.
Speaker 10: (39:29)
Specifically, are you planning to do daily or weekly calls with states, or how are you planning to top the communication then?
Jen Psaki: (39:36)
Well, we have an entire COVID team, as you know, who are now, most of them are official and part of their role will be engaging with governors, Democrats and Republicans, mayors, local elected officials, to gain a better understanding of what’s happening on the ground, that will be how they’re going to be intaking a great deal of information. Obviously, health care providers and experts on the ground as well. We will also do engagement from the level of the President and the Vice-President as well, because they also want to have that conversation with states and local officials on what they’re experiencing, what they see the challenges as, and how they can be addressed. And that’s something I think in President Biden’s heart, he is a local elected official still, and he gets into the weeds of what they’re experiencing and he will be involved in that himself.
Jen Psaki: (40:27) Go head in the way back.
Speaker 11: (40:28)
Thanks, Jen. There’s a lot of really big things that the administration wants to do, infrastructure, the stimulus, tax reform. Can you sort of lay out the cadence for us over the upcoming year? How do you envision those three major things playing out? What’s the order? When do you think those will be taken up? When will they happen?
Jen Psaki: (40:46)
Well, what I can lay out for you on our first full day here as what our initial priorities are, and they revolve around addressing the four crises that the President has stated that the country is facing, including getting the pandemic under control, getting people back to work, addressing our climate crisis and addressing racial equity. And-
Speaker 11: (41:09) [crosstalk 00:41:10].
Jen Psaki: (41:09) Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 11: (41:10)I was going to ask you, do you think tax reform happens in 2021?
Jen Psaki: (41:14)
I don’t really have any predictions for you on that. I think at this point in time and for the foreseeable future, addressing the pandemic, getting the pandemic under control and that linkage to getting people back to work will be his top price.
Speaker 11: (41:31)
[inaudible 00:41:31] the decision yesterday from the President. What would you say to those who have lost their job or will lost their job as a result of that decision? What would the message of the President of the White House be?
Jen Psaki: (41:40)
The message of the President and the White House would be that he is a committed. His record shows the American people that he’s committed to clean energy jobs, to jobs that are not only good, high paying jobs, union jobs, but ones that are also good for our environment. He thinks it’s possible to do both. He led an effort when he was the Vice-President to put millions of people to work with both of those priorities in mind and he will continue to do that as President. But he had opposed the Keystone Pipeline back in 2013 when there was a consideration of the permit or … Sorry, I don’t think it was 2013, I think it was a little bit after that. And he’s been consistent in his view and he was delivering on a promise he made to the American public during the campaign. Go ahead all the way in the back.
Speaker 12: (42:32)
Thank you. I wanted to go ask you about [inaudible 00:42:35] leadership. What is President Biden’s vision of India, US relationship, the relationship in the world’s [inaudible 00:42:41] and world’s largest democracy?
Jen Psaki: (42:44)
Well, first I would say that President Biden, who of course has visited India many times, respects and values the long bi-partisan successful relationship between leaders in India and the United States. He looks forward to a continuation of that. Obviously he selected and yesterday she was sworn in the first Indian American to serve as President or Vice-President is certainly a historic moment for all of us in this country. But further cementing of the importance of our relationship, so.
Jen Psaki: (43:21) Go head, George.
George: (43:22)
Yeah. Thanks. Two questions, if I could? One on the Hatch Act, will this administration take that seriously? And do you think it’s ever appropriate for this White House to have a political event or political meeting?
Jen Psaki: (43:37)
Well, as you know, there are some political events that are acceptable, but we certainly take the Hatch Act seriously and we’ll abide by that and you will not see a political rally on the South lawn of the White House under President Biden.
George: (43:56)
Second one, this may sound trivial, but Presidents and candidates have some events where they’re fun for the candidate, big crowd on the acceptance speech at the convention, the big crowd at the inauguration, big rallies. Because of COVID, this President has been denied all those. Has he ever been at all wistful about sort of missing the fun parts of being a candidate and the inauguration?
Jen Psaki: (44:28)
Not in front of me, George, I will say that even yesterday or over the last couple of days, he tried to find a moment of joy with his family and with his grandchildren who bring him a great deal of joy and a recognition of course, the great responsibility he has on his shoulders but a moment in history that he was playing a very important part of. So I would say he’s been in public office as you all know for decades and he’s had many joyful moments, but this moment serving as President coming in at a crisis where thousands of people are dying from a pandemic every day, millions of people are out of work, is not really a time for daily joy as the leader of the free world. And he’s focused on doing his job to get the work done for the American people.
Jen Psaki: (45:18) Go ahead.
Steve: (45:19)
Why we’re in President Biden and all members of the Biden family masked at all times on federal lands last night if he signed an executive order that mandates masks on federal lands at all times?
Jen Psaki: (45:31) At the inaugural?
Steve: (45:33) At the memorial, yes.
Jen Psaki: (45:36)
I think, Steve, he was celebrating an evening of a historic day in our country and certainly he signed the mask mandate because it’s a way to send a message to the American public about the importance of wearing masks, how it can save tens of thousands of lives. We take a number of COVID precautions, as you know, here in terms of testing, social distancing, masks wearing ourselves as we do every single day. But I don’t know that I have more for you on it than that.
Steve: (46:05)
But as Joe Biden often talks about it is not just important the example of power, but the power of our example. Was that a good example for people who are watching might not pay attention normally?
Jen Psaki: (46:20)
Well, Steve, I think the power of his example is also the message he sends by signing 25 executive orders, including almost half of them related to COVID. The requirements that we’re all under every single day here to ensure we’re sending that message to the public. Yesterday was a historic moment in our history, he was inaugurated as President of the United States. He was surrounded by his family. We take a number of precautions, but I think we have bigger issues to worry about at this moment in time.
Jen Psaki: (46:51) Go ahead, Anita.
Jeff: (46:52) Jen?
Anita: (46:52) Yeah, you mentioned-
Jen Psaki: (46:53) Oh, sorry. Jeff. Let me go to Jeff, Anita, because I already went to you, if that’s okay?
Jeff: (46:57)
Thanks very much. Follow up on the New START. Do you have any indication from Russia that they will object to the extension of five years and has the United States already alerted Moscow about its desire?
Jen Psaki: (47:12)
Well, obviously, as you know, a number of our nominees have talked about our intention during their confirmation hearings over the past couple of days of extending New START. I don’t have any calls to read out for you, but I can check and see if any notifications or discussions have happened this afternoon.
Jeff: (47:28)
And to follow up on something from yesterday, which I think you referred to that President Biden had said that President Trump left him a very generous note and he didn’t want to talk about it until he spoke to President Trump. Are President Biden and former President Trump going to have a call?
Jen Psaki: (47:45)
There’s no call plans. What he was conveying is that he didn’t want to release a private note without having agreement from the former President. But I wouldn’t say he’s seeking it through a phone call. He just was even trying to be respectful in that moment of a private letter that was sent. (48:03) And to be respectful in that moment of a private letter that was sent.
Speaker 13: (48:04)
With regard to former president, has President Biden spoken to Speaker Pelosi at all about the timing of when she plans to bring the impeachment articles to the Senate, and how he would like to see this trial proceed?
Jen Psaki: (48:18)
President Biden has been pretty clear about what the focus of his conversations are and what his intention is with his engagements with leaders from both sides of the aisle and in both houses of Congress, including with speaker Pelosi, someone he’s known for quite some time. And that is his intention and focus on getting the COVID package through. So he will leave it to her and to now-leader Schumer to determine what the path forward and the timeline will be in holding the former president accountable. Anita, go back to you.
Anita: (48:51)
Yeah. You earlier mentioned four priorities of the president. I was surprised to not hear immigration per se in that, because yesterday, many of the executive orders were about immigration. There were two major agency releases last night about immigration. The bill is being introduced today. Do you not see that as sort of the second big push after the COVID bill? Where do you see that, and I guess I would say… I was going to ask you, why is it going to be… Why is it such a priority after the COVID bill, but you didn’t even list it. So I wanted to kind of clarify that and get your thoughts on it.
Jen Psaki: (49:27)
Well, I wouldn’t read into that other than immigration, we consider as part of racial equity, which is a broad issue, but that’s how the president has spoken about that crisis over the past several months. And clearly it is an enormous priority to him because we moved forward in announcing the specifics of an immigration bill and immigration package he is eager to move forward on with Congress on, on his first day in office. But as you know, there’s been a lot of history on efforts to do comprehensive immigration reform, to do any form of immigration reform. And what we’re hopeful is that this will be a moment of reset and a moment to restart discussions on Capitol Hill. There are already a number of co-sponsors who have been announced to have those discussions. There are experts on immigration who have worked on this issue on both sides of the aisle. Historically, it is an issue there that there is bipartisan support. Support from the business community, supports from a range of outside groups with different political tilts. And we’re hopeful that that will help propel it forward.
Anita: (50:35)
Senator Amanda said today on a call, he called it a Herculean effort to get this through. As you know, it hasn’t gone through, as you just mentioned before. I mean, there are Republicans grumbling today that there’s not more in that bill that they want to see. So is that bill… What do you think the prospect of that bill getting through is?
Jen Psaki: (50:56)
I don’t know that I can predict that the first day. I mean, it’s only been out for 24 hours. But what was important to the president and the outline of this bill is that it is addressing a couple of areas that he doesn’t feel have been effectively done in the past. The last four years, the immigration policy has been based around funding for a wall that has not worked even to keep the country safer, even to keep bad actors out. And so his approach is multi-pronged. It is to do smart security, security that will help address and use technology to address key border crossings. Address ports of entry more effectively and efficiently, and putting that oversight in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security. It will also help address root causes of migration. And that hasn’t been in past bills as you probably well know, Anita, it was not in the bill in 2013, but it’s something that he has been an advocate for in his time in public office.
(51:56)
And it also has a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who were living in the country. There are components of here in the bill that address a lot of the issues that have not been addressed in the past. And certainly the components of it that talk about smart security are the kind of border security that we think is essential and more effective than what we’ve seen over the past couple of years. Go ahead, can I go to Zeke first and then to you, Kristen? Go ahead.
Zeke: (52:27)
I just want to follow up with a question as to the president’s [inaudible 00:52:30] about a hundred million vaccines the first time [inaudible 00:52:33] started. That’s roughly a per diem basis of where the vaccinations are right now. Can you just elaborate a little bit why the president isn’t setting the bar a little bit higher? Maybe a [inaudible 00:52:46] or not, can you just explain it to other people, when they see these statistics. You know, one tracker had 1.6 million yesterday. Why isn’t the president shooting a little bit higher, given the magnitude of the crisis here?
Jen Psaki: (52:54)
Well, none of us are mathematicians, myself included. So I asked our team to do a little math on this. So the Trump administration was given 36 million doses when they were in office for 38 days. They administered a total of about 17 million shots. That’s about less than 500,000 shots a day. What we are proposing is to double that to about 1 million shots per day. And we have outlined this goal and objective in coordination and consultation with our health and medical experts. So it is ambitious. It’s something that we feel is bold, and was called that certainly at the time. And we’re working overtime to help to achieve it, try to achieve it.
Zeke: (53:36)
But is the president trying to… We obviously would try to exceed that if possible. Is it possible we may see in a couple of weeks or month that the president would up that goal?
Jen Psaki: (53:46)
Well, Zeke, there are a lot of factors that go into determining how many shots can get into the arms of Americans. We feel confident we can achieve this goal. Obviously are other vaccines that are being considered at this point in time by the FDA, there is funding that will be needed for distribution. There are a number of steps that will help expedite at some point in time. But right now, our focus is on what many health and medical experts have consistently called a bold goal. I will note also that some of the reporting this morning as which Kristen asked about earlier, was that the Trump administration left us with no plan. It’s hard for them to both be exactly true at the same time. And our team has been putting together a plan, our own plan as Dr. Fauci talked about, for some time to achieve this goal.
(54:36)
But he also mentioned that there are a number of challenges. It’s not just about lining people up, as you all know, but for people watching, in a football stadium and giving them shots. We have to overcome vaccine hesitancy. We have to get to health communities where they don’t have access to health centers. That was outlined, a number of steps to address that were outlined in the president’s plan today. But this is a bold goal. We’re going to work every day to achieve it. And we’ll build from there. There’s a lot more of the administration to go from there and more work on COVID to be done.
Speaker 9: (36:55)
Thank you, Jen, [inaudible 00:36:56]. I have a question for myself and then a question for someone who cannot be here because of the social distance polices.
Jen Psaki: (37:02) Okay, sure.
Speaker 9: (37:02)
My question is this, and it’s about unity again, I’ve heard from conservatives who are afraid that the President is going to try to pull back religious conscience exemptions for groups like Little Sisters of the Poor. The President pledged he would do that in July when Little Sisters won a case in the Supreme court, the health and human services nominee, Javier Bisera pursued that line of going after the exemptions as Attorney General, California. What’s the President going to do on that?
Jen Psaki: (37:32)
I haven’t discussed that particular issue with him. I’m happy to circle back with you, but there’s not a change in his position from what he said earlier this summer. Did you have another question?
Mary: (37:42)
I have a question from Adam Longo of WUSA9? He says we saw the President warmly great Mayor Bosley during the parade yesterday, she is pushing for the DC Statehood measure to be on the President’s desk within 100 days. Will the administration get behind this bill and does the President support it?
Jen Psaki: (38:01)
I hate to disappoint you, but I will have to circle back with you on that as well. There’s quite a bit going on. I have not discussed DC Statehood with him in the last 36 hours.
Mary: (38:10) [inaudible 00:38:10]
Jen Psaki: (38:11) Sounds great. Go ahead in the back.
Speaker 10: (38:13)
Yeah. Thanks, Jen. I wanted to circle back on something COVID related. I know the President has obviously made a priority of resuming in-person learning in the first hundred days. I wonder, is the administration planning to issue any kind of uniform guidance to states on whether it’s reopening schools, reopen businesses, indoor dining, stuff like that, or are you all planning to just kind of leave it to states to do sort of a patchwork based on those situations?
Jen Psaki: (38:40)
Well, as Dr. Fauci conveyed, our objective is to ensure that health and medical experts are leading the effort in determining guidance, and also communicating it with the public whenever possible. And any guidance would come, of course, as you know, from the CDC. And we will, of course, defer to that. But part of our priority and our focus here is on providing more engagement with states, more clear guidance from the federal level in terms of how we’re planning to operate, what data we’re seeing, how vaccines are being distributed, what we see as the challenges. And that communication has been lacking as we understand it from our conversations in the past few months, so that is what we will focus on improving in the months ahead.
Speaker 10: (39:29)
Specifically, are you planning to do daily or weekly calls with states, or how are you planning to top the communication then?
Jen Psaki: (39:36)
Well, we have an entire COVID team, as you know, who are now, most of them are official and part of their role will be engaging with governors, Democrats and Republicans, mayors, local elected officials, to gain a better understanding of what’s happening on the ground, that will be how they’re going to be intaking a great deal of information. Obviously, health care providers and experts on the ground as well. We will also do engagement from the level of the President and the Vice-President as well, because they also want to have that conversation with states and local officials on what they’re experiencing, what they see the challenges as, and how they can be addressed. And that’s something I think in President Biden’s heart, he is a local elected official still, and he gets into the weeds of what they’re experiencing and he will be involved in that himself.
Jen Psaki: (40:27) Go head in the way back.
Speaker 11: (40:28)
Thanks, Jen. There’s a lot of really big things that the administration wants to do, infrastructure, the stimulus, tax reform. Can you sort of lay out the cadence for us over the upcoming year? How do you envision those three major things playing out? What’s the order? When do you think those will be taken up? When will they happen?
Jen Psaki: (40:46)
Well, what I can lay out for you on our first full day here as what our initial priorities are, and they revolve around addressing the four crises that the President has stated that the country is facing, including getting the pandemic under control, getting people back to work, addressing our climate crisis and addressing racial equity. And-
Speaker 11: (41:09) [crosstalk 00:41:10].
Jen Psaki: (41:09) Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 11: (41:10)I was going to ask you, do you think tax reform happens in 2021?
Jen Psaki: (41:14)
I don’t really have any predictions for you on that. I think at this point in time and for the foreseeable future, addressing the pandemic, getting the pandemic under control and that linkage to getting people back to work will be his top price.
Speaker 11: (41:31)
[inaudible 00:41:31] the decision yesterday from the President. What would you say to those who have lost their job or will lost their job as a result of that decision? What would the message of the President of the White House be?
Jen Psaki: (41:40)
The message of the President and the White House would be that he is a committed. His record shows the American people that he’s committed to clean energy jobs, to jobs that are not only good, high paying jobs, union jobs, but ones that are also good for our environment. He thinks it’s possible to do both. He led an effort when he was the Vice-President to put millions of people to work with both of those priorities in mind and he will continue to do that as President. But he had opposed the Keystone Pipeline back in 2013 when there was a consideration of the permit or … Sorry, I don’t think it was 2013, I think it was a little bit after that. And he’s been consistent in his view and he was delivering on a promise he made to the American public during the campaign. Go ahead all the way in the back.
Speaker 12: (42:32)
Thank you. I wanted to go ask you about [inaudible 00:42:35] leadership. What is President Biden’s vision of India, US relationship, the relationship in the world’s [inaudible 00:42:41] and world’s largest democracy?
Jen Psaki: (42:44)
Well, first I would say that President Biden, who of course has visited India many times, respects and values the long bi-partisan successful relationship between leaders in India and the United States. He looks forward to a continuation of that. Obviously he selected and yesterday she was sworn in the first Indian American to serve as President or Vice-President is certainly a historic moment for all of us in this country. But further cementing of the importance of our relationship, so.
Jen Psaki: (43:21) Go head, George.
George: (43:22)
Yeah. Thanks. Two questions, if I could? One on the Hatch Act, will this administration take that seriously? And do you think it’s ever appropriate for this White House to have a political event or political meeting?
Jen Psaki: (43:37)
Well, as you know, there are some political events that are acceptable, but we certainly take the Hatch Act seriously and we’ll abide by that and you will not see a political rally on the South lawn of the White House under President Biden.
George: (43:56)
Second one, this may sound trivial, but Presidents and candidates have some events where they’re fun for the candidate, big crowd on the acceptance speech at the convention, the big crowd at the inauguration, big rallies. Because of COVID, this President has been denied all those. Has he ever been at all wistful about sort of missing the fun parts of being a candidate and the inauguration?
Jen Psaki: (44:28)
Not in front of me, George, I will say that even yesterday or over the last couple of days, he tried to find a moment of joy with his family and with his grandchildren who bring him a great deal of joy and a recognition of course, the great responsibility he has on his shoulders but a moment in history that he was playing a very important part of. So I would say he’s been in public office as you all know for decades and he’s had many joyful moments, but this moment serving as President coming in at a crisis where thousands of people are dying from a pandemic every day, millions of people are out of work, is not really a time for daily joy as the leader of the free world. And he’s focused on doing his job to get the work done for the American people.
Jen Psaki: (45:18) Go ahead.
Steve: (45:19)
Why we’re in President Biden and all members of the Biden family masked at all times on federal lands last night if he signed an executive order that mandates masks on federal lands at all times?
Jen Psaki: (45:31) At the inaugural?
Steve: (45:33) At the memorial, yes.
Jen Psaki: (45:36)
I think, Steve, he was celebrating an evening of a historic day in our country and certainly he signed the mask mandate because it’s a way to send a message to the American public about the importance of wearing masks, how it can save tens of thousands of lives. We take a number of COVID precautions, as you know, here in terms of testing, social distancing, masks wearing ourselves as we do every single day. But I don’t know that I have more for you on it than that.
Steve: (46:05)
But as Joe Biden often talks about it is not just important the example of power, but the power of our example. Was that a good example for people who are watching might not pay attention normally?
Jen Psaki: (46:20)
Well, Steve, I think the power of his example is also the message he sends by signing 25 executive orders, including almost half of them related to COVID. The requirements that we’re all under every single day here to ensure we’re sending that message to the public. Yesterday was a historic moment in our history, he was inaugurated as President of the United States. He was surrounded by his family. We take a number of precautions, but I think we have bigger issues to worry about at this moment in time.
Jen Psaki: (46:51) Go ahead, Anita.
Jeff: (46:52) Jen?
Anita: (46:52) Yeah, you mentioned-
Jen Psaki: (46:53) Oh, sorry. Jeff. Let me go to Jeff, Anita, because I already went to you, if that’s okay?
Jeff: (46:57)
Thanks very much. Follow up on the New START. Do you have any indication from Russia that they will object to the extension of five years and has the United States already alerted Moscow about its desire?
Jen Psaki: (47:12)
Well, obviously, as you know, a number of our nominees have talked about our intention during their confirmation hearings over the past couple of days of extending New START. I don’t have any calls to read out for you, but I can check and see if any notifications or discussions have happened this afternoon.
Jeff: (47:28)
And to follow up on something from yesterday, which I think you referred to that President Biden had said that President Trump left him a very generous note and he didn’t want to talk about it until he spoke to President Trump. Are President Biden and former President Trump going to have a call?
Jen Psaki: (47:45)
There’s no call plans. What he was conveying is that he didn’t want to release a private note without having agreement from the former President. But I wouldn’t say he’s seeking it through a phone call. He just was even trying to be respectful in that moment of a private letter that was sent. (48:03) And to be respectful in that moment of a private letter that was sent.
Speaker 13: (48:04)
With regard to former president, has President Biden spoken to Speaker Pelosi at all about the timing of when she plans to bring the impeachment articles to the Senate, and how he would like to see this trial proceed?
Jen Psaki: (48:18)
President Biden has been pretty clear about what the focus of his conversations are and what his intention is with his engagements with leaders from both sides of the aisle and in both houses of Congress, including with speaker Pelosi, someone he’s known for quite some time. And that is his intention and focus on getting the COVID package through. So he will leave it to her and to now-leader Schumer to determine what the path forward and the timeline will be in holding the former president accountable. Anita, go back to you.
Anita: (48:51)
Yeah. You earlier mentioned four priorities of the president. I was surprised to not hear immigration per se in that, because yesterday, many of the executive orders were about immigration. There were two major agency releases last night about immigration. The bill is being introduced today. Do you not see that as sort of the second big push after the COVID bill? Where do you see that, and I guess I would say… I was going to ask you, why is it going to be… Why is it such a priority after the COVID bill, but you didn’t even list it. So I wanted to kind of clarify that and get your thoughts on it.
Jen Psaki: (49:27)
Well, I wouldn’t read into that other than immigration, we consider as part of racial equity, which is a broad issue, but that’s how the president has spoken about that crisis over the past several months. And clearly it is an enormous priority to him because we moved forward in announcing the specifics of an immigration bill and immigration package he is eager to move forward on with Congress on, on his first day in office. But as you know, there’s been a lot of history on efforts to do comprehensive immigration reform, to do any form of immigration reform. And what we’re hopeful is that this will be a moment of reset and a moment to restart discussions on Capitol Hill. There are already a number of co-sponsors who have been announced to have those discussions. There are experts on immigration who have worked on this issue on both sides of the aisle. Historically, it is an issue there that there is bipartisan support. Support from the business community, supports from a range of outside groups with different political tilts. And we’re hopeful that that will help propel it forward.
Anita: (50:35)
Senator Amanda said today on a call, he called it a Herculean effort to get this through. As you know, it hasn’t gone through, as you just mentioned before. I mean, there are Republicans grumbling today that there’s not more in that bill that they want to see. So is that bill… What do you think the prospect of that bill getting through is?
Jen Psaki: (50:56)
I don’t know that I can predict that the first day. I mean, it’s only been out for 24 hours. But what was important to the president and the outline of this bill is that it is addressing a couple of areas that he doesn’t feel have been effectively done in the past. The last four years, the immigration policy has been based around funding for a wall that has not worked even to keep the country safer, even to keep bad actors out. And so his approach is multi-pronged. It is to do smart security, security that will help address and use technology to address key border crossings. Address ports of entry more effectively and efficiently, and putting that oversight in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security. It will also help address root causes of migration. And that hasn’t been in past bills as you probably well know, Anita, it was not in the bill in 2013, but it’s something that he has been an advocate for in his time in public office.
(51:56)
And it also has a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who were living in the country. There are components of here in the bill that address a lot of the issues that have not been addressed in the past. And certainly the components of it that talk about smart security are the kind of border security that we think is essential and more effective than what we’ve seen over the past couple of years. Go ahead, can I go to Zeke first and then to you, Kristen? Go ahead.
Zeke: (52:27)
I just want to follow up with a question as to the president’s [inaudible 00:52:30] about a hundred million vaccines the first time [inaudible 00:52:33] started. That’s roughly a per diem basis of where the vaccinations are right now. Can you just elaborate a little bit why the president isn’t setting the bar a little bit higher? Maybe a [inaudible 00:52:46] or not, can you just explain it to other people, when they see these statistics. You know, one tracker had 1.6 million yesterday. Why isn’t the president shooting a little bit higher, given the magnitude of the crisis here?
Jen Psaki: (52:54)
Well, none of us are mathematicians, myself included. So I asked our team to do a little math on this. So the Trump administration was given 36 million doses when they were in office for 38 days. They administered a total of about 17 million shots. That’s about less than 500,000 shots a day. What we are proposing is to double that to about 1 million shots per day. And we have outlined this goal and objective in coordination and consultation with our health and medical experts. So it is ambitious. It’s something that we feel is bold, and was called that certainly at the time. And we’re working overtime to help to achieve it, try to achieve it.
Zeke: (53:36)
But is the president trying to… We obviously would try to exceed that if possible. Is it possible we may see in a couple of weeks or month that the president would up that goal?
Jen Psaki: (53:46)
Well, Zeke, there are a lot of factors that go into determining how many shots can get into the arms of Americans. We feel confident we can achieve this goal. Obviously are other vaccines that are being considered at this point in time by the FDA, there is funding that will be needed for distribution. There are a number of steps that will help expedite at some point in time. But right now, our focus is on what many health and medical experts have consistently called a bold goal. I will note also that some of the reporting this morning as which Kristen asked about earlier, was that the Trump administration left us with no plan. It’s hard for them to both be exactly true at the same time. And our team has been putting together a plan, our own plan as Dr. Fauci talked about, for some time to achieve this goal.
(54:36)
But he also mentioned that there are a number of challenges. It’s not just about lining people up, as you all know, but for people watching, in a football stadium and giving them shots. We have to overcome vaccine hesitancy. We have to get to health communities where they don’t have access to health centers. That was outlined, a number of steps to address that were outlined in the president’s plan today. But this is a bold goal. We’re going to work every day to achieve it. And we’ll build from there. There’s a lot more of the administration to go from there and more work on COVID to be done.
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