After a rough few months, the White House is enjoying a wave of favorable news into the weekend, praising 2021 economic growth, an unexpectedly decent employment report, a decrease in COVID-19 cases and a counterterrorism operation that took out ISIS’s commander.
The first week of February provided some respite for the Biden administration after months of distress.
On Friday, President Trump praised the news that the United States added 467,000 jobs in January, much beyond projections.
After the Labor Department’s monthly employment report showed that January payrolls grew by more than 150,000 jobs, President Trump said, “America is back to work,” citing the data.
“This morning’s report caps off my first year as president, and over that period, our economy created 6.6 million jobs. Six-point-six million jobs,” he said. “You can’t remember another year when so many people went to work in this country — there’s a reason. It never happened.”
In the three months ending in December, GDP rose by 6.9% annualized, marking the greatest quarterly growth in any year. The employment data was released only one week after GDP.
“Proud” of his administration’s participation in “economic recovery” during the COVID-19 outbreak, President Trump stated.
As well, the CDC announced that COVID-19 instances had dropped to 596,860, a 20 percent decrease from the preceding week’s seven-day moving average, after weeks of soaring cases of the omicron variation.
There was a shortfall of tests for the administration at the peak in December and early January; nevertheless, the Biden administration started shipping out tens of millions of free at-home COVID-19 exams to American families towards the end of last month. There are still a lot of Americans who haven’t received the exams.
It’s all after President Trump said Thursday that US military troops had achieved their goal of capturing Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi, the head of ISIS, also called as Haji Abdullah. He took over in 2019 following the US operation that had killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
U.S. Special Operations forces assassinated Haji Abdullah in a mission which was “long planned” and on the same magnitude as the operation to kill Usama bin Laden in 2011, according to administration sources speaking on condition of anonymity to Fox News.
At least three people were murdered when al-Qurayshi exploded explosives in their house. According to officials, they think he purposefully chose to reside in a building with a large number of families who were not affiliated with ISIS.
“Every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties,” Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday, pointing out that the special forces mission posed “a much greater risk to our own people” than an airstrike.
It was on Thursday that President Obama spoke to the country, and he congratulated American troops as they “carried out the operation with their signature preparation and precision”.
“This operation is a testament to America’s reach and capability to take out terrorist threats, no matter where they try to hide, anywhere in the world,” Biden said Thursday. “I’m determined to protect the American people from terrorist threats, and I’ll take decisive action to protect this country.”
Since Nominee Stephen Breyer declared his intention to step down from the Supreme Court last week, President Obama has been able to nominate his first Supreme Court justice.
Biden has a chance to fulfill one of his pledges by selecting the first black lady to serve as an associate judge on the Supreme Court with the approaching vacancy.
During a press conference this week, President Obama said he hoped to work with senators from both parties and was eagerly awaiting the Senate’s advice and consent on his choice, which he intends to make public by the end of this month. A woman of color will be the candidate, as he has promised.
Republicans have criticized the president for his commitment, noting that it restricts the pool of competent candidates.
Only 23% of respondents to an ABC News-Ipsos survey this week said they preferred that the president restrict the list of prospective choices for Breyer’s replacement to Black women.
Because of Reagan’s pledge, the White House was able to use his appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor, who was later confirmed as the first female Supreme Court justice in Reagan’s 1980 reelection campaign.
According to the White House, Republicans’ objections of President Trump are based on his pledge in September 2020 to choose a woman to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Amy Coney Barrett, who was nominated by Trump later, was approved by the Senate.
But since October, the president’s job approval rating has been at 47 percent and 52 percent, according to the most recent Fox News survey.
A “week from hell” for Vice President Biden, according to the media, began his term in office in 2022.
That week was a whirlwind of events, including Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema’s refusal to vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster, Vice President Joe Biden’s speech in support of voting rights legislation, and the Supreme Court’s decision to block his mandate to force large organizations to vaccinate and test their employees for COVID-19.
As recently as January 7-10, a Quinnipiac University national survey found that Biden’s favor rating was only 33% and his disapproval 53%.
The White House is still dealing with the immigration situation at the southern border, despite the recent flood of positive news.
According to the border numbers, the Biden administration’s focus on “root causes” in Central America has failed miserably as evidence of a failure.
Single adults have been released into the interior of the United States only hours after landing, according to a recent Fox News story, and fewer migrants are being deported under Trump administration Title 42 public health policy, according to the same article.
And as the crisis enters its second year, more and more people from faraway nations are trying to take advantage of what they believe to be a permeable environment and better prospects of being permitted into the United States of America.
US Border Patrol authorities recently detained people from Pakistan, Syria, China, Eritrea and Sudan. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were also recently detained by US Border Patrol agents. There were also thousands of migrants from India and numerous from Turkey, according to the official Customs and Border Protection figures.
There is still a lot of work to be done on the border, and the president has reaffirmed the administration’s emphasis on “root issues,” such as corruption and poverty in Central America, which he said this week.
Despite the recent rise in cargo, the Biden administration is still trying to figure out how to alleviate supply chain bottlenecks, as ports around the United States were unable to keep up with the demand.
As ships carrying anything from electronics to frozen chickens load up with boxes, ports have become a major bottleneck in global supply chains. Empty shelves have been a result of the backlogs.
Wholesale prices grew at their quickest rate on record in December, more proof that inflationary pressures continue to afflict the United States’ economy.
Consumer price inflation was 9.7 percent higher in December than it was a year earlier, according to data released by the Labor Department last month. Since the government started keeping track of the statistics in 2010, this was the greatest number ever recorded.
Even as millions of employees have seen their wages rise to levels not seen in years, the highest inflation rates in over four decades have negated much of those gains, driving up the cost of basic necessities like fuel, clothes, and food.
“I’m a capitalist, but capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It’s exploitation,” the president made the statement while praising Friday’s employment figures.
“So I’m going to continue everything in my power to work with the Congress to make our capitalist system work better. Provide more competition and lower prices for American consumers.”
To that end, he said that the federal government must “ease the burden on working families by making everyday things more affordable and accessible.”
“Look, average people are getting clobbered by the cost of everything. Gas prices at the pump are up. We’re working to bring them down, but they’re up,” Biden said. “Food prices are up. And we’re going to bring them down as well.” As the president put it, his government would “work to bring down the prices that are way up” and continue “strengthening the supply chain to bring down the cost of all of these goods.”
