Biden will speak ‘directly to the American people’ in first prime time Oval Office address as president to celebrate avoiding ‘catastrophic’ default as Fitch keeps U.S. credit on ‘negative watch’ due to repeated ‘standoffs’
- Biden will speak from the Oval Office in prime time
- He will cheer bipartisan debt deal he’ll sign two days before ‘X date’
- Biden is expected to sign deal into law Saturday
President Joe Biden will deliver his first Oval Office address as president from behind the Resolute Desk as he seeks to hold up the bipartisan achievement of avoiding a default on the nation’s debt.
The speech is set to be a victory lap after the House and Senate on Thursday passed through the budget agreement Biden negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
It imposes flat funding for the next fiscal year, with a 1 per cent cut the next, while expanding work requirements for food stamps – but also accomplishes Biden’s top goal of avoiding default.
After a months-long period when top Treasury officials and Wall Streeters warned of wide-ranging impacts on the global economy, Biden is set to take avoiding that worst case scenario as a win. But his speech comes after credit rating Fitch Ratings announced it would keep the U.S. on a ‘negative watch,’ noting that it dodged the deadline but faces ‘repeated political standoffs.’
President Biden is set to speak in prime time Friday to discuss a bipartisan budget deal that prevented a ‘catastrophic default,’ said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
It comes after Biden got to herald yet another positive jobs report, as the economy added 339,999 jobs in May.
‘The President wanted to make sure that he addressed the American people directly, and he’s going to be speaking from the Oval Office behind the desk to the American people for the first time … during the primetime primetime hour, and so he just wanted to make sure that the American people understood how important it was to get this done,’ she said.
‘The bipartisan budget agreement protects our historic and hard earned economic recovery and all the progress that American workers have made in the last two years,’ said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Friday.
She said lawmakers from both parties joined to ‘prevent a catastrophic default and demonstrated once more that America is a nation that pays its bills and meets its obligation.’
‘We’ve been talking about averting the catastrophic default for the past couple of weeks, the past couple of months, and how important it was for the President to do that. There is a gravity as you all can imagine at this moment,’ said Jean-Pierre.
It is to be Biden’s first prime time speech since he spoke from the Blue Room balcony to announce that the U.S. carried out an air strike that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The speech comes hours after Biden took a tumble while handing out diplomas to cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
President Joe Biden while speak about the bipartisan budget effort that kept the nation out of a ‘catastrophic’ potential default
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told his caucus that Republicans were able to achieve a rare reduction in government spending while suspending the debt ceiling until January 2025
It will be Biden’s first prime time speech to the nation from the Oval Office as president
President Joe Biden is helped up after falling during the graduation ceremony at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. He fell while handing out diplomas to cadets. One virtue of the Oval Office venue is it doesn’t allow room for many physical mishaps
The seated format, behind the Resolute Desk while surrounded by TV cameras and lighting, plus a small press contingent, will prevent that kind of mishap from happening.
It was at another venue exactly a year ago that Biden spoke from yet another White House venue during prime time. That one was to mark the gun attack on children and teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.
Biden’s celebration of the debt deal comes despite criticism from a faction of progressive lawmakers angry about the flat funding that amounts to a budget cut. The deal passed the House The 314-to-117 with 46 Democrats and 71 Republicans voting against it.
It also includes controversial new work requirements, although many House conservative Republicans are fuming at other program changes that would exempt veterans and homeless, making the changes close to a wash.
