Pool Reports by Joey Garrison, USA Today
| Sent: | Reports: |
| July 8, 2021 10:17 |
In-town pool report #1 -- no schedule changes Good morning from the White House. I'll be your in-town pool reporter today. It's a muggy 81 degrees with a chance of rain later. There are no schedule changes so far:
Let me know if you have any questions! |
| July 8, 2021 | [APP Note: Report #2 does not exist or was not received by the APP.] |
| July 8, 2021 12:45 |
In-town pool report # 3 -- civil rights organizations The White House passes along the following regarding the meeting with civil rights organizations that POTUS and VP will have later today. The meeting begins at 3:30 p.m. ET. Attendees at the meeting with civil rights organizations in the Roosevelt Room later today:
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| July 8, 2021 12:52 |
In-town pool report #4 -- spelling corrections The White House informs me they provided some spelling errors in the previous list of civil rights leaders/organizations that I sent out. Here's the updated list with the corrected spellings. Attendees at the meeting with civil rights organizations in the Roosevelt Room later today:
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| July 8, 2021 13:31 |
In-town pool report #5 -- briefing ends, pool to gather soon The WH press briefing ended at 1:29 p.m. after beginning at 12:39 p.m.. The WH has informed the pool to hold for a new gather time for Biden's speech on Afghanistan. |
| July 8, 2021 13:53 |
In-town pool report #6 -- pool gathering now WH pool is gathering now at the Palm Room doors for Biden's speech on Afghanistan drawdown. |
| July 8, 2021 14:00 |
In-town pool report # 7 -- waiting in East Room Your pooler is in the White House East Room waiting for POTUS to arrive to give remarks on the Afghanistan drawdown. The speech is expected to last 15 minutes, according to a WH official. |
| July 8, 2021 14:09 |
In-town pool report #8 -- 2-minute warning on Biden speech A two-minute warning has been issued for Biden's Afghanistan speech. I will refrain from sending the speech transcript. You can watch it live at the usual locations. |
| July 8, 2021 14:35 |
In-town pool report #9 -- Biden takes questions after speech POTUS took the podium in the East Room of the White House at 2:08 p.m. ET and finished his speech around 2:20 p.m. Portraits of George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt to his right. The press occupied seats spaced out across four rows in the middle of the room. He read from a teleprompter. A handful of WH aides including Jake Sullivan watched from the back. Biden took question for around 14 minutes after the speech from the podium. The pool left the East Room at 2:34 p.m. ET POTUS was asked by one reporter whether he trusts the Taliban. "Is that a serious question?" POTUS said. "No, I do not." "No, there's no 'mission accomplished," when asked later if this is a "mission accomplished moment." I will provide for quotes in a later pool report. You can watch Biden's full remarks here from the speech: |
| July 8, 2021 15:29 |
In-person pool report #10 -- lid White House calls a lid at 3:27 p.m. ET. |
| July 8, 2021 15:50 |
In-town pool report #11 -- POTUS quotes from questions POTUS's speech on the Afghanistan drawdown lasted about 13 minutes. POTUS also spent about 13 minutes afterward taking questions from reporters. You can watch his Q&A with reporters on the livestream, but here are some excerpts. Topics are in bold and underlined. Check the tape for the accuracy of quotes. On a Taliban takeover Reporter: Is a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan now inevitable?" POTUS: "No, it is not" Reporter: Why? POTUS: "Because you have the Afghan troops. They have 300,000, as well-equipped as any army in the world and an Air Force – against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable." POTUS doesn't trust the Taliban Reporter: Do you trust the president, Mr. president? POTUS: "Is that a serious question?" Reporter: It's absolutely a serious question. Do you trust the Taliban? POTUS: "No, I do not. No I do not trust the Taliban. ... It's a silly question. Do I trust the Taliban? No. But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military – who is better trained, better equipped and more competent in terms of conducting war. Was war in Afghanistan worth it? Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President. Given the amount of money that has been spent, and the number of lives that have been lost, in your view, with making this decision, were the last 20 years worth it? POTUS: "You know my record, I can tell by the way you asked your question. I opposed permanently having American forces in Afghanistan. I argued from the beginning, as you may recall, when it came to light after the administration was over -- our administration. No nation has ever unified Afghanistan. No nation. Empires have gone there and not done it. The focus we had -- and I strongly support it, and you may remember I physically went to Afghanistan. I was up in that pass where Osama Bin Laden allegedly escaped out of harm's way. "We went for two reasons. One was to bring Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell, as I said at the time. The second reason was to eliminate Al-Qaeda capacity to deal with more attacks on the United States from that territory. We accomplished both of those objectives. Period. That's what I believed from the beginning why we should have gone to Afghanistan. That job has been over for some time. That's why I believe this is the right decision and quite frankly, overdue. On U.S. intelligence assessments Reporter: Mr. President, thank you very much. Your own intelligence community has assessed that the Afghan government will likely collapse ... POTUS: "That is not true." Reporter: Please clarify what they have told you and what is your level of confidence that it won't collapse? POTUS: "It is not true ... The Afghan government leadership has to come together. They clearly have the capacity to sustain the government in place. The question is, will they generate the kind of cohesion to do it. It's not a question of whether they have the capacity -- they have the capacity, they have the forces, they have the equipment. The question is, will they do it? And I want to make clear what I made clear to Connie, that we are not going to just walk away and not sustain their ability to maintain that course. We are. We're going to also work to make sure we help them in terms of everything from food necessities and other things in the region. But – but -- there is not a conclusion that, in fact, they cannot defeat the Taliban. I believe the only way – this is now Joe Biden, not the intelligence community – that the only way there's only going to be peace and security in Pakistan is that they work out a modus vivendi with the Taliban, and they make a judgement as to how they can make peace. And the likelihood there's going to be one unified government in Afghanistan controlling the whole country is highly unlikely." What if Kabul falls? Reporter: But we have talked to your own top general in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, he told ABC News, the conditions are so concerning at this point that it could result in a civil war. So if Kabul falls to the Taliban, what will the United States do about it? POTUS: "You've said two things. One, that if it could result in a civil war. That's different than the Taliban succeeding. Number two, the question of what will be done ... can implicate the entire region as well. There's a number of countries that have grave concern about what's going to happen in Afghanistan relative to their security. The question is, how much of a threat to the United States of America, and to our allies, is whatever results in terms of a government or an agreement. That's when that judgement will be made." POTUS objects to Vietnam comparison Reporter asks about comparison to this withdrawal in Afghanistan and what happened in Vietnam POTUS: "None whatsoever. Zero What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy. Six if I'm not mistaken. The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. They're not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There's going to be no circumstance when you're going to see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comfortable." On US responsibility if Afghan civilians are killed Reporter: Will the U.S. be responsible for the loss of Afghan civilian lives after the exit from Afghanistan? POTUS: "No, no, no, no. It's up to the people of Afghanistan to decide on what government they want, not us to impose the government on it. No country's ever able to do that. Keep in mind, as a student of history which I'm sure you are, never has Afghanistan ever been a united county – not in all of its history. Not in all of its history. On 'mission accomplished' Reporter: If this is not a mission accomplished moment, then what is it? POTUS: "No, there's no mission accomplished The mission was accomplished in that we got Osama Bin Laden and terrorism is not emanating from that part of the word." |
| July 8, 2021 15:55 |
In-town pool report #12 -- meeting underway with civil rights groups From a WH official at 3:54 p.m. ET: "The President and the Vice President's meeting with the leadership of top civil rights organizations has started." |
| July 8, 2021 17:43 |
In-town pool report #13 — meeting ending soon The White House says civil rights leaders will be ready to address reporters outside the west wing in "five to 10 minutes." Your pool reporter is gathered outside and awaiting their arrival. |
| July 8, 2021 17:48 |
In-town pool report #14 — meeting over, civil rights leaders address media POTUS and VP met at the WH for about 1 hour and 45 minutes with leaders of civil rights organizations. Civil rights leaders are now meeting with reporters. I will send over quotes later. |
| July 8, 2021 18:55 |
In-town pool report #15 -- civil rights leaders react to WH meeting Eight civil rights leaders including The Rev. Al Sharpton and Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, addressed reporters outside the White House for 33 minutes after meeting with POTUS and VP for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Their meeting concluded around 5:41 p.m. ET. The group said they will continue pushing for passage of the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. They also said they intend to make the coming weeks a "summer of activism" to push Congress to act. "This will be a summer of activism," Sharpton said, " a summer of getting back in the streets, a summer of saying to the Senate and the Congress, you may be going home, but it's going to be warmer politically than you think on the ground. And we want that to be made clear." Here's the FULL REMARKS in Otter: https://otter.ai/u/vjKAlEW5S4_Cdx6t7NxTdAEW7lA As always, check the transcript against the audio. Afterward, (which you will hear at the very end of the Otter transcript) I asked Sharpton separately whether the group pressed Biden about his position on the filibuster in regards to voting rights legislation. Sharpton: "We talked about our position. We didn't ask him of his. We wanted him to know our position. This was more of him listening to us and our telling him that we were not going to lay back anymore while they dealt with bipartisan talks. We're going to hit the streets ... Me: What did he say about the filibuster? Sharpton: "He said he understood our position. He did not make a commitment on where they would be on ... He listened and the vice president listened. We did ask the Vice President if she would go on the road. She absolutely said that she would do that." A lid has already been called. I will be leaving the WH for the day. Let me know if you have any questions! |
| July 8, 2021 19:20 |
In-town pool report #16 — readout from civil rights groups Passing along this readout from the civil rights groups … Also, attached is a photo of a flyer i took that has some of the dates of events they're pushing next week. Readout of Civil Rights Leaders Meeting with President Biden and Vice President Harris WASHINGTON — The leaders of the nation's top historic civil rights organizations released the following joint readout on their meeting today at the White House with President Biden and Vice President Harris. "In a very constructive meeting, national civil rights leaders met with President Biden, Vice President Harris, and senior White House officials to discuss the freedom to vote and restoring trust in law enforcement through police accountability. "The civil rights leaders expressed their very serious concern over the dangerous anti-voter efforts by some who are intent on taking the nation backwards through voting barriers for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and new Americans. They made clear that these severely harmful efforts are a historic and existential crisis of democracy that requires urgent attention. The leaders expressed their thanks to the president and vice president for their support so far and asked them to do even more in pushing Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in order to make real the promise of our democracy for all. "The civil rights leaders also discussed the urgent need to provide meaningful changes to hold police accountable for misconduct and ensure the safety of all community members, including Black and Brown people who disproportionately face violence and abuse at the hands of police. The leaders urged the president and vice president to do everything possible to ensure legislation like the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act is passed into law. "The civil rights leaders expressed their appreciation to the president and vice president for meeting with them and made clear they are eager to continue working with the White House on these important issues." Civil rights leaders in attendance included:
Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president, National Action Network |
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Pool Reports of July 8, 2021 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/351277