President Joe Biden reiterated Friday night that neither party got “everything” they wanted in the debt ceiling negotiations but argued it was “critical” to reach an agreement to avoid a national default.
Biden delivered a prime-time address at 7 p.m. from the Oval Office detailing the “crisis averted” last week.
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Biden, who confirmed that he will sign the debt ceiling bill into law on Saturday, opened by pushing back on the notion that bipartisanship in Washington is waning.
“Our fellow Americans, when I ran for president, I was told the days of bipartisanship were over, that Democrats and Republicans can no longer work together, but I refuse to believe that,” the president stated. “America can never give in to that way of thinking. The only way American democracy can function is through compromise and consensus, and that’s what I worked to do as your president to forge this bipartisan agreement.”
“Essential to all the progress we’ve made in the last few years is keeping the full faith and credit of the United States and passing a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation,” he continued. “And that’s why I’m speaking to you tonight: to report on a crisis averted and what we are doing to protect America’s future. Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher.”
Biden claimed that neither Democrats nor Republicans “got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed.”
We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse,” Biden claimed. “We’re cutting spending and bringing deficits down. And, we protected important priorities from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to veterans to our transformational investments in infrastructure and clean energy.”
The president also made his case to Democrats angered with the deal by outlining where specifically he stood up to Republicans, including protecting veterans benefits and healthcare for low-income families and outlining his desire to continue attacking the tax code so that the wealthy “pay their fair share.”
“I can honestly say to you tonight that I have never been more optimistic about America’s future. There is nothing, nothing we can’t do if we do it together,” he said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre previously told reporters that Biden will not sign the bill into law Friday evening but will sign it this weekend ahead of the June 5 “X-date.”
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You can watch Biden’s 7 p.m. address in full below.
This is a developing story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available.
