Pool Reports of April 13, 2021

WH Pool report 1: Participants in the CBC meeting.

Good morning from the White House. A WH official sends allong the following participant list :

Today, the President and the Vice President will bemeeting with key members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). They will discuss the President’s long-term partnership with the CBC on crucial issues in particular voting rights, racial equity and how the infrastructure investments in the American Jobs Plan will advance racial equity and redress historic inequities.

Congressional Black Caucus Participants:

• Joyce Beatty (D-OH-03), Chair
• Steven Horsford (D-NV-04), 1st Vice Chair
• Brenda Lawrence (D-MI-14), 2nd Vice Chair
• Hank Johnson (D-GA-04), Whip
• Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX-18), Parliamentarian
• Frederica Wilson (D-FL-24), Secretary
• Joe Neguse (D-CO-02), Member At Large
• Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)
• Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ)
• Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA)

White House Participants:

• Vice President Kamala Harris
• Cedric Richmond, White House Senior Adviser & Office of Public Engagement Director
• Louisa Terrell, White House Legislative Affairs Director

WH Pool report 2: motorcade rolling to the Capitol

At 10:49, President Biden’s limousine rolled east on Pennsylvania Ave, with POTUS visible in the back, cupping a phone to his ear.

WH Pool Report 3: POTUS arrived at the Capitol complex.

At 10:56, the motorcade stopped on New Jersey Ave between Longworth and Cannon, where the press vans pulled over to park, but then pulled back behind the motorcade at about 10:59.

Then some vehicles, and presumably the President’s, pulled into the east plaza, according to a Capitol Police officer.

Pool did not see POTUS exit his vehicle.

Pool is holding on New Jersey Ave and will not have access inside the Capitol building, where the President will pay his respects to William Evans, the officer who died on April 2 and is lying in honor in the rotunda.

WH Pool report 4: Capitol greeters

The below is from a WH official.

Upon arrival at the U.S. Capitol, the President will be greeted by:

Davita Jones, Deputy Sergeant at Arms
Becky Schaffer, Deputy Sergeant at Arms

The President will also be greeted by Congressional leaders:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
Chief of Protocol for U.S. House of Representatives Kate Knudson

WH pool report 5: POTUS motorcade rolling back to WH at 12:29

Pool did not see Biden enter his vehicle.

Returned to 1600 via Pennsylvania at 12:35. Motorcade entered on West Exec.

Pool did not see Biden exit his vehicle.

Briefing is next.

WH Pool report 6 Biden met with the family of Officer Evans

Before departing the Capitol, the President met with the family of Officer Evans, according to a WH official.

WH Pool report 7: NEWS. Biden made comments on the vaccine at the end of the pool spray in the Oval

Fuller quotes to come, but I wanted to get this out.

"I made sure we have 600 million doses of the MMR (unintelligible), not on either Johnson and Johnson and or AstraZeneca. So there is enough vaccine, that is basically 100% unquestionable, for every single, solitary, American."

WH Pool report 8: Fuller notes/quotes from Biden's meeting with CBC leaders. A travel photo lid has been called.

At approximately 2:30, the pool was led into the Oval, where BIden was seated with his back to the fireplace, with Vice President Harris on his right and members of the CBC, spaced before him on the parallel couches and then in chairs, leading up to the Resolute Desk. Susan Rice and Cedric Richmond stood in the back, behind the crush of cameras, boom mics and reporters. Everyone was masked.

POTUS waited for the pool to enter and began his remarks by noting "the loss that you have had" and then mentioned the passing of longtime CBC member Rep. Alcee Hastings, who he "knew for a long long time." He then spoke of the "God awful shooting" of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, "which resulted in his death" before referencing the trial for the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

I have 93.5% confidence in the following bolded quotes but did not get them all, as the sound was suboptimal through Biden's black mask and I positioned myself poorly. If you're a 100 percenter, wait for the transcript or watch the feed.

"We're in the business, all of us meeting today, to deliver some real change. And when we took office, and I talked to Jim (Clyburn) about this, every single aspect of... signed an executive order...every single aspect of our government...every agency has a primary focus of dealing with equity. It's not a joke...."

"We also have an awful lot to deal with... in advancing economic opportunity...."

"So I look forward to discussing all these priorities..."

"I'd like to take some special time in American Jobs Act, which I think some of you actually helped me put that together with the ideas he gave me earlier on.

"And I think we can make significant, significant changes in the last legislation and help the past, reduce child poverty and reduce poverty black communities significantly just by that act alone. But my objective there is to make this change."

"And so, anyway, lot to talk about, and I'm looking forward to having this meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus...."

After speaking for about two minutes, the president indicated that his audience with the pool would be terminated.

But the pool -- collectively and individually -- had other ideas and began shouting questions. Through the sheer persistence of a radio reporter, one query seemed to cut through, or at least the last part of it did, which I can clearly hear on my tape: "(unintelligible)...there will be change in the way that African Americans interact with police in this country during the Biden era. What can you deliver on, sir?"

Biden (fortissimo): "A lot. And I will tell you guys later. Let's go."

The pool, at this point, disaggregated, with some following the verbal and nonverbal cues from the wranglers to quit the Oval. As a result, your pooler did not hear the precipitating question on vaccines, but got most of the response:

Biden: "My message to the American people on the vaccine is, I told y'all. I made sure we have 600 million doses of the MR (unintelligible), not of either Johnson and Johnson and or AstraZeneca. So there is enough vaccine, that is basically 100% unquestionable, for every single, solitary, American. Thank you."

As the pool was (again) being ushered out, more questions were essayed -- "Mr. President, what's your message for President Putin on Ukraine?" -- but they were not met with a presidential response.

The pool exited the Oval around 3:41 and a travel photo lid was called shortly thereafter.

There has not been an announcement overhead that the CBC meeting has concluded.

WH pool report 9: CBC meeting has ended, per overhead announcement

Pool is heading toward the sticks.

WH pool report 10: clarification from press office

The CBC meeting was ending, but it had not officially ended, per a WH official.

However, the meeting is expected to end soon.

Pool is still at stakeout.

WH pool report 11: rough transcript of the CBC lawmakers at the stakeout.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty, as well as other CBC members, spoke to reporters for about 22 minutes, discussing their meeting with Biden, their agenda and Biden's support for their agenda.

Just a few highlights.

• Biden recommitted, the lawmakers said, to naming a Black female as his first Supreme Court Justice pick.
• They also discussed reparations and Biden gave his support for H.R. 40, a bill to create a commission to study reparations and consider "appropriate remedies," according to the lawmakers.
• Some CBC members disputed the notion that vaccine "hesitancy" is leading to lower vaccination levels in African American communities. Instead, they said the focus should be on "access" and "education."
• Later this month, the CBC will launch a vaccination day/week in their communities, which will be similar to "soul to the poll" efforts. Like voting drives, there will be one specific day that will be part of a broader week.

Here's an AI transcript that I tried to clean up a bit, as well as a link for the enterprising:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?510775-1/congressional-black-caucus-member...

Congresswoman Joyce Beatty Chair:
"That was a very long meeting, very productive thing. Yes, well first of all let me just say thank you, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, joined by our entire executive team, we also had our two Democratic senators, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and certainly the dean, Mr Kleiber who's the majority whip the dean of the progressional black pack. We're here today to discuss with the President, our first 100 days as well as his first 100 days. We know we're at a critical point in this nation as we look at the COVID 19 pandemic. At the top of our list of presidents list in the nation. We know that the pandemic is not only healthcare, but it is also our economy and it is also the social and justices, we had an amazing meeting where we were able to share our thoughts and I do this, but we also can't, because we know there will be challenges as we look at what this nation is facing. We started out but certainly saying this has been a tough week for us, sending home one of our very young, Congressman Alcee Hastings, today the President, as you know within the United States Capitol, as we put to rest, one of our police officers, and yet we also know that another unarmed young black man was shot and killed too many senseless deaths. So we rolled our top priorities and that we want to make it clear not only to the president, but the nation of who we are as the Congressional Black Caucus in our 50th anniversary year with 56 members. We have a strong message beyond being the conscience of the power. It is our power. And it is our message, and that is wrapped in healthcare, it is wrapped in closing the wealth gap. It is wrapped in voter rights, civil rights, reparations. And as we look at housing, and environmental and justices. So that's what we talked about today, but we also made some ask that this is the first of many meetings to come. We also know that we have to look at the disparities in health care and with the vaccination. While some may think that it is hesitancy, it is also access to it, it is also education and information. So today we announced first that the Congressional Black Caucus, will be having a CBC vaccination day, and we, we will run it just like you get people to go and vote on voting days just as you have people do early vote. And as we do get out the vote or as we do it on souls to the polls, we went five our community health centers. We have a lot to be thankful for as it relates to putting funding, as you know, Out of the American rescue plan when you look at the dollars that went back to community health centers, we need to go to our churches, our schools and our houses. The President gave us a thumbs up for that. We haven't talked enough about food deserts and what happens in our communities. We also haven't talked enough about closing the wealth gap. So today when we talked about housing and infrastructure and the child's tax credit, and education. One of the key proponents, to making sure that we get people in the pipeline to close it this time, I'd like to ask our team to make a comment about today's

Rep. Jim Clyburn: "Today's meeting, we were able to listen to some of the President's challenges and how he thought we might be able to assist in meeting those challenges. And of course we made him aware of some of the challenges that we are experiencing some of the things that we hear in the communities we represent, and we wanted to emphasize the fact that we see his programs and then significant to this country, get it back in a better place. But we also want to have to understand that we know the lessons of history. We want to make sure that this time around, we do not repeat those we can rate error errors that were made. For instance, I just raised the issue of the disparities that existed with the New Deal program. We all know that the country came back with a lot of pockets of poverty, were left there. This time you want to make sure that as we rescue this economy is bringing back data that is better for everybody, so that we will not leave pockets of poverty out there. And one of those pockets had to do with food deserts, that exists to be represented. And we asked the President to consider the tax laws that get good tax credits for grocery stores that will establish themselves into underserved communities, just as we do for houses. Let's do it for your sisters as well. So these kinds of pieces were discussed. We were very pleased with his receptivity, and we look forward to moving forward together.

Rep. Beatty: Let me just add before you have questions and now direct to some of the members that we also talked about, he shared with us, putting $14 billion in two, when we look at education Title One doubling the pale. We also talked about appointments to the White House to the judicial bench to invest and pleased to know as we have fought for and said when there was another opening on the Supreme Court, we want that to be someone that is representative is indicative of us, and today I can tell you that we certainly support that being a black woman. So we asked all the questions and shared with him that we were sworn in into the 170 Congress live more than 30 Some 1000 household watched us we've done things that are unprecedented. We opened our Congressional Black Caucus, up to the media, social media, and went live with one of our actual meetings, but I can tell you that you can look for us to talk about voting rights, a lot more the John R Lewis voting rights bill. They're here to write the bill and have legislation before the summer is over. There's a hearing tomorrow and I'm sure you might have a question on reparations, House Bill morning we're Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee will be there taking the lead on that. We also, as we look at what we're doing with health care, the Vice President was in the meeting, and actually encouraged us and supported our idea that Congresswoman Brenda alarm had suggested that we do a vaccination day, certainly we cannot do that. Our members talked about everything from housing to Empire mental, which we're all on our check list for the first 100 days that we either write the legislation, George, Floyd, justice and policing, written by the Congressional Black Caucus voted in pass. Oh, we know we have a lot of work to do. We know that we had a lot of things that we put on our plate but today we're telling you that we were able to meet our goals by our last one meeting with the President, within our first 100 days.

Question:
"You mentioned at the top that reparations did reparations come up, did the President give you an indication if he's moved on that subject, and do you feel like his response has been adequate"

Rep. Beatty:
"So let me say yes and then I'm going to ask Congresswoman Jackson Lee, we shared with him that the hearing is tomorrow, it is in markup, it is moving. We also witnessed him saying that he is very supportive of a reparations commission, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee would you like to say.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee:
Thank you Madam Chair. First of all let me say that I associate very strongly with the chair on the President's acknowledgement of the need for an appointment to the Supreme Court and then appointed me. But let me indicate that we did bring up the issue of reparations, the Congressional Black Caucus is the conscience of the nation, the Congress and our communities. And the reason is because we are solely the organization that can bring up the question of racism, acknowledge it, pointedly asked about it. And note that it does exist in this country, even though we are collaborative, and we work with all groups, when we fight and cure racism, we will in fact see America's Promise. I think that is the understanding of social justice issues which include hr 40 the commission to study and develop reparation proposals. So we did not leave it out, and we have heard from not only the president but the White House, and his team, that he is committed to this concept. We are grateful for that because we are now doing something historically tomorrow that's never been done, and that is that that bill that legislation will be marked up in a judiciary committee, with the support of the Judiciary Committee Chair constitution chair, and, of course.

Rep. Beatty:
"Well first of all let me just say we had a very healthy conversation about it because certainly issue now it has passed already and it was written in part by the Congressional Black Caucus. We also talked about several of the things included in that deal, which he is very supportive of me. Come on, we're looking at what just happened a few days ago with a young 21 year old that was killed over, less than $400, in fines in actuality while I might say, was stopped for driving while black one might want to say, so he was very supportive of all of the things in there. Talk about assault weapons we talk about creative ways that we could try to be helpful if we put more things in place to have gun reform and so he was very supportive, with all of the issues that are contained within that we asked about this, about the vaccination day or week that you're referring to when specifically is that day when is that week what role will the White House play and what is your goal in terms of vaccinating those in the population you're specifically targeting, let me start that now turn to Congresswoman Lawrence today was our first day of announcing it, we are looking at doing it on a specific day and carrying it for a week obviously like we do with voting, we are hopeful to have that put together by the end of the month. Not only did we get a thumbs up from the President. He also pointed to his executives in the room to work with us on it. We talked about the dollars that have gone back into community health centers, which this president did most of us received millions of dollars in our district. To do that, so each member of the Congressional Black Caucus will go back into their districts for that that we represent 17 million black Americans in at America, Congresswoman Lawrence 80 mil.

Rep: Brenda Lawrence:
"We know that the issue of COVID-19 When you talk about the death rate when you talk about the infection rate, African Americans were affected at a higher rate than any other group. And now with the vaccines, we've seen hesitancy, but we're also seeing lack of education and distribution. We are trying to do all of our bully platforms to come together. Use the education to let our community knows that to live and to be able to fight this virus. We need all of you to come in and get it. So we're going to partner with the NAACP, the Urban League, we're going to partner with, we asked for the White House to partner with us, and the Black Caucus elite this. Will you all know how to vote, you know how it's voting day so it would be vaccination day or week where you go into the community without, without having a reservation come in and get your vaccines we must do this, to keep our communities strong and along the mountain, money, let me just say there are dollars in the COVID package the Americans rescue plan for education for distribution, and also to educate our community.

Question:
Are you concerned about the Johnson and Johnson decision to pause, but that's really going to be a fit back in terms of this vaccine hesitancy. So are you worried about that?

Rep Brenda Lawrence: "We're not worried but we certainly respect what we've heard this morning from all the medical experts, keep in mind, six women. Such a tragedy as it is what we're looking at where we are with Matt. During the vaccination for the number of people, the President is one target and has exceeded his goal. So we will continue to listen to the doctors, but now we have enough between Pfizer and Madonna, to take care of us reaching our goals and let me just say this because some people and even those that media question when he said to large number 100,000 that he was going to do in 100 days, then it wasn't enough so he opted. This is part of having applied things happened when you're dealing with something that none of us have ever dealt with in our lifetime. So we're comfortable and we'll continue.

Question: But my question was about the vaccine hesitancy. So, in the black community there are still many people who remember...

Rep. Brenda Lawrence: "So, it is our opinion that hesitancy is not the number one issue in the black community. It is having access to it. It is needing more education and awareness, it is transportation. And that is why is the Black Caucus, another one of our deliverables, was to put more money in for distribution, and to put it in communities that are marginalized, and brown and black communities, and we weren't able to fight to get that involved it was voted on and it was passed out. Now, are there some people that remember where you're going with the Tuskegee experiment or Henrietta Lacks, all of us here remember that, but guess what, all of us here are vaccinated. And so we want to dispel this whole hesitancy and that's why one of the reasons we're doing the get out to get vaccinated.

Question: Can you talk a little about legislative strategy obviously the President supports where you guys are on police reform on guns. The John Lewis. Voting Rights Act, but that's not necessarily the issue the issue no offense senators Booker and Warren on issues the US Senate. Did you talk about what the process is or strategy is to try and break through?

Rep. Beatty:

"Absolutely we talked about legislative process we talked about ideas, ways and things that are in progress right now because that's what we did, we write legislation we work together we had our two senators in there, we worked through relationships, and so we are in the process of doing those things that we already had planned that we shared many of that with the President.

Question: Did the President make any commitments in terms of working with the Senate trying to break through that roadblock in the Senate?

Rep. Beatty: You have to remember the President comes from being a senator, so having two former senators in the room, I think speaks volumes of how they'll know how to be helpful to us, and be trusted with that.

Question:
"Are you concerned about the President being able to secure he's talked about the need for more accountability and policing. And so that, you know, everybody's held to the same rules. Are you concerned that you're going to be able to actually enact legislation to ensure accountability.?"

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee:

"Well, I just want to emphasize important point is that the George for justice and policing Act was discussed in the room, along with voting rights, along with the commission to study and development research proposals. That's the most important message is that we were engaged in a discussion with us further meetings to be had further discussions to be had with our senator who's here, who chairs the committee in the United States Senate. And of course as indicated the Vice President is clearly very familiar with these initiatives and was in the room. So I think we'd like you to know that we discuss these issues with George for justice and policing act as this trial proceeds, we acknowledge the tragedy of Mr Wright, and the lieutenant, and that happened in Windsor, Virginia, that's a very important moment and we know we're going to have other meetings to develop our next steps, but we are moving forward, and we were able to discuss those very openly with the President today. Thank you. Let me just say this and I'm going to send it to Warnock to come because I'm going to tee it up to answer your question in relationship to whether it's strategies.

Rep. Beatty:
"All of this starts with the voting rights. If we don't get people registered to vote, if we don't stop voter suppression. If we don't put something in place to make sure that we protect this trauma, democracy, we can't go beyond that. And the President was 100% on board with us, and I'd like to close by asking Senator Warnock, to come and make a response to the voting rights."

Sen Warnock:

"Well, we were very heartened by our meeting with the President. We expressed again, our concern about voting rights, voting rights are preservative of all other rights. He gets that. And he understands that while we are working on a whole range of issues, from healthcare to vaccinations, infrastructure, we can both work on infrastructure and the infrastructure about democracy at the same time. And so he reassured us that we are partners in this effort, and that we must pass voting rights in this Congress,

Question: "Some the voices of this group obviously resonate far beyond the walls of the White House here there was a lot of unrest we saw in Minnesota last night fears of more tonight as addressed by the President and addressed by the press secretary perhaps from this group and as such influence what message do you send to those people in the streets tonight are obviously filled with grief and with outrage?

Rep. Beatty:

"I think it's important for those individuals there and across this nation to know that we are standing here on the grounds of the White House. Because of them, and for them. We feel their pain because many of us have witnessed the same pain, the same discrimination, we know there is systemic racism, we know that we need to do better with enforcing police reform than reform, we're asking them to stand with us as we stand with them. That is why we brought the George boy justice and police again, no one should have eight minutes and 46 seconds, or nine minutes is plenty nine seconds on their neck. So we are standing with them. It is not by accident that we are here at night. This is the same as when those same individuals went to the streets and said, say your name, whether it was Breanna Taylor, whether it was George floor. And we stand with them to use our power and our message to bring about change, to bring about coming in we got to do that voting, and through jobs in the economy, we cannot forget, if you're going to change the infrastructure of democracy of life of justice. We have to close the wealth gap. We have to make sure that we continue to fund small businesses small minority owned businesses give people that lift up, they now with jobs, and with education, thank you very very much.

Rep. Beatty:
"And you may want to say that what we are asking them, is to be peaceful in their protest. Many of us marched with the late colleague, John Lewis, many marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. Many of us have been pepper sprayed, arrested, locked up for civil rights, so we asked them to stand with us, and to be peaceful in their protests. Thank you."

WH pool report 12: update on schedule

A White House official sends along the following:

"Tomorrow morning, the President will accompany the First Lady to an appointment for a common medical procedure at an outpatient center in Washington, DC. Afterward, the President and the First Lady will return to the White House to resume their normal schedule."

WH pool report 13: POTUS accepts Pelosi invitation

From a WH official:

"The President has accepted the invitation of the Speaker of the House to address a Joint Session of Congress on April 28, the night before his 100th day in office."