Pool Reports by Alex Gangitano, The Hill
| Sent: | Reports: |
| June 20, 2023 11:55 PDT |
Travel pool #1 Hi from sunny San Francisco! We're here for another day of events. Pool is gathering for the 12pmPT call time. Guidance for the day is below. PDT 10:00 AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing 12:00 PM Out-of-Town Pool Call Time 1:00 PM THE PRESIDENT discusses his Administration's commitment to seizing the opportunities and managing the risks of Artificial Intelligence 2:30 PM THE PRESIDENT departs San Francisco, California en route to Larkspur, California 3:10 PM THE PRESIDENT arrives in Larkspur, California 4:15 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a campaign reception 5:35 PM THE PRESIDENT departs Larkspur, California en route to San Francisco, California 5:50 PM THE PRESIDENT arrives in San Francisco, California 7:00 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a campaign reception |
| June 20, 2023 13:13 PDT |
Travel pool #2- AI event Pool was ushered into a room at the Fairmont Hotel at 1:12 pm for the AI event. Event is being streamed at the usual spot- https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/ Event is starting now. |
| June 20, 2023 13:19 PDT |
Travel pool #3- Hunter Q Pool exited the room at 1:17pm after Biden spoke at the top of the meeting. He responded to a shouted question-- Q: Have you spoken to your son today? "I'm very proud of my son" Biden was asked that multiple times. The first time he was asked he just smiled. He did not respond to a shouted question about if he encouraged him to take the guilty plea. |
| June 20, 2023 13:20 PDT |
Travel pool #4 Passing along from the White House- In attendance for the President's meeting on his Administration's commitment to seizing the opportunities and managing the risks of Artificial Intelligence: Governor Gavin Newsom (CA) Speaking Program |
| June 20, 2023 14:50 PDT |
Travel pool #5 Motorcade is rolling from the Fairmont Hotel at 2:50pm. |
| June 20, 2023 15:04 PDT |
Travel pool #6 Motorcade arrived at Marine One at 3:03pm. We're all about to have really amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge on a beautiful sunny day. Tons of people on the streets of San Francisco waving and taking photos of the motorcade. Passing along- Traveling with the President via motorcade en route to Crissy Field Landing Zone: Governor Gavin Newsom (CA) Traveling with the President aboard Marine One en route to Mackey Field Landing Zone: Governor Gavin Newsom (CA) |
| June 20, 2023 15:19 PDT |
Travel pool #7 We were wheels up at 3:12, didn't see when Marine One was boarded or when it took off. Wheels down at 3:18pm. |
| June 20, 2023 15:35 PDT |
Travel pool #8 Pool was moved so we couldn't see Marine One land. Got an obstructed view while waiting in vans. Motorcade is rolling at 3:34pm. Headed to a campaign reception in Kentfield. |
| June 20, 2023 15:46 PDT |
Travel pool #9 Motorcade arrived at the home at 3:42pm and we are holding. |
| June 20, 2023 16:05 PDT |
Travel pool #10 Pool is still holding. On behalf of the Biden-Harris campaign: President Biden's first fundraiser this evening in Kentfield, California is at the home of Stephanie and Mark Robinson and is in support of the Biden Victory Fund. Speaking Program |
| June 20, 2023 17:31 PDT |
Travel pool #11 Motorcade was rolling at 5:20 and got to Marine One at 5:29pm. Quotes to come, sorry for the delay. Traveling with the President aboard Marine One en route to Crissy Field Landing Zone: Bruce Reed, Assistant to the President & Deputy Chief of Staff |
| June 20, 2023 17:57 PDT |
Travel pool #12 Marine One touched down back in San Francisco at 5:50pm. The president deplaned and emerged at 5:53pm. Motorcade is rolling to our next location. |
| June 20, 2023 18:02 PDT |
Travel pool #13- quotes Event quotes below, thanks for your patience. More to come. I wanted to get this out though. Event had about 130 attendees. Gov. Newsom spoke before the president "It's been a masterclass of delivering," Newsom said about Biden's presidency so far. "Look what he's done on jobs. "You wanted a bipartisan president-IRA, Chips, pact act" "With all due respect to Kevin McCarthy, ran circles around Kevin McCarthy on that debt ceiling bill." Said everyone at the event "has a responsibility" to deliver Biden four more years. "Mr President trust me, this is a fancy crowd... I know these folks." Biden then spoke for 23 minutes. Some quotes- "I'm going home now," Biden said to laugher "Gov, I tell you what... it's amazing the job you do, I really meant it. And I can't thank you for your friendship, can't thank you enough." "All of you being here, I don't know why you'd ever leave here. It's magnificent." Told the story about being asked by Xi if he could define America and Biden said "possibilities." Talked about why he decided to run for president. "I found that things, people thought that things were in tough shape." "We got an incredible amount of bipartisan legislation passed, so much for not being able to bring people together." "We also brought back NATO together." "Putin was convinced that he would be able to split NATO because we never stick together, we never do it." "We began to invest in America again." "We invented the computer chip, we're the guy who came and did that." "We unleashed I think a sense...of expectation in America, that we can do anything." "What's happened? We started to figure out we can do it again." "Six years ago, how many of your friends who were doing well didn't think they was much to global warming?" "More timbers burned to the ground than compromises the entire land mass of the state of Maryland." "With regard to Europe… I thought we could bring Japan along." "Japan's increased its military budget exponentially. And guess what, when was the last time you heard Japan being interested in what's happening in the middle of Europe, in the war and contributing to the help and the support of the state of Ukraine." "Things are changing." "By the way, I promise you, don't worry about China. Worry about China but don't worry about China. I really mean it. China has real economic difficulties." "The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment is he didn't know it was there. No, I'm serious. That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn't know what happened. That wasn't supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States and he didn't know about it. When it got shot down he was very embarrassed and he denied it was even there." "We're in a situation now where he wants to have a relationship again. Antony Blinken just went over there...did a good job and it's going to take time." |
| June 20, 2023 18:11 PDT |
Travel pool #14- more quotes More quotes below and that's it from the last event. More on Xi- "What he was really upset about was that I insisted that we unite the…so called Quad. He called me and tell me not to do that. Because it was putting him in a bind. I said all we were doing, we're not trying to surround you, we're just trying to make sure the international air and sea lines remain open." "So now we have India, Australia, Japan, and the United States working hand in glove in the South China sea." "I never thought as a kid coming out of the Vietnam war era that we would have Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos wanting a close relationship with the United States of America. My point is, the world is changing." "It's not America first, it's America with our allies because that's what we need around the world, we need those efforts." "Africa's going to have one billion people by the end of this decade… and guess what, they don't have the capacity to deal with a lot of their needs. "We're in the process of making sure that we help build the first railroad across the continent." "The idea that more children die as a consequence of a gunshot wound or bullet than any other reason is sick. It's really sick. The fact that the NRA has such overwhelming power – Now, the NRA is the only outfit in the whole nation that we cannot sue as an institution." Before he became president, "They passed legislation saying you can't sue them. Imagine if that been the case with tobacco companies. How many more people would be dead today if we weren't able to reign in tobacco companies?" "The American people by in large are great, you don't need a weapon of war." "What's the deal with the idea that it's an absolute- I love these guys who say the second amendment is the tree of liberty is watered by the blood of patriots... "Freedom is really under siege, particularly freedom of choice. "Now they're going after contraception. Mark my words. "Two of the justices said let's make it clear, Not only is there's no constitutional protection from the right to choose, there's no constitution protection for contraception, there's no constitutional right in the law for HB-- excuse me, for gay, lesbian, you know, the whole, the whole group. "I think that the combination of keeping the economy growing, and keeping the economy growing in a way that everyone has a shot at benefiting from it, … dealing with the freedoms that have [been] taken away. I insist that we're going to pass the legislation in the majority of the states reinstating Roe v Wade." |
| June 20, 2023 18:30 PDT |
Travel pool #15 Pool is holding ahead of the next event at a restaurant in San Francisco. |
| June 20, 2023 18:36 PDT |
Travel pool #16 If you wanted more Gov. Newsom from the last event, h/t Jen Haberkorn— We are still holding ahead of this last event. Gov. Newsom: "The last few years have been a masterclass and I don't say that lightly. It's been a master class … of working, as Stephanie said with the slimmest of majorities, and yet still delivering unprecedented unprecedented legislation. I "The last few years have been a masterclass and I don't say that lightly. It's been a master class of working… with the slimmest of majorities, and yet still delivering unprecedented unprecedented legislation." "You wanted a bipartisan President? IRA, Chips, PACT act, what he did for veterans. Look what he just did on the debt ceiling, with all due respect to Kevin McCarthy, ran circles around Kevin McCarthy on that debt ceiling bill. These are not easy things to do." "This is a remarkable leader who is living remarkable moment in time. And we have a responsibility to do more and step up our game to support this president not just now for the next year and a half as he finishes out this first term, but to make sure we deliver him back to the White House for an additional four year term. And so I am here Mr. President, as a proud American as a proud California mesmerized. By not just your faith and devotion to this country, and the world we're trying to build, but by your results, by your action, by your passion, by your capacity to deliver." |
| June 20, 2023 | [APP Note: Report #17 does not exist or was not received by the APP.] |
| June 20, 2023 19:34 PDT |
Travel pool #18- quotes from 2nd event Pool was brought into a private room of the restaurant at 6:54pm. 21 people were seated to listen to him. 2 chairs were set up next to the podium and Biden told the group he will answer questions after he speaks. The group was called the Climate Leaders Group. Biden spoke for 13 minutes and pool was moved before questions. "There's not many climate deniers anymore, there's selfish people who don't want to do what we have to do initially." "When I was in California and then Colorado I was saying, I'm worried that we're going to lose the Colorado river. The whole damn river. Not a joke. People looked at me like I was, I was on something." "We don't have a lot of time. We don't have a lot of time. We're in a situation where, as I said, if we don't get it right in the next five years and we're on target in the United States, we're not on target in other places in the world." Talked about how he rejoined the Paris agreement when he first got reelected. "We've come a long way." "Remember they said we couldn't get that done," talking about the Inflation Reduction Act. Mentioned that solar factories, wind farms, electric vehicle plants are being created. "I never realized how much is emitted to the air with the production of cement, cement. And so, we're changing our trade policy relative to that. And a whole range of other things." "Put solar panels on the roof, you get tax credit. Buy energy efficient appliance, you get a tax credit. All of the sudden that's working, that's working in a pretty big way right now," he said. "I know there's concern about Willow up in Alaska. Well, here's the legal judgement I got. There are four of these, five of these wells plus…in the lake, anyway. If we had denied it all, there was an even chance we'd lose in court. And so we provided for one, one well. And in the meantime I took 23 million acres in the region and put it off limits." "Remember the other team making fun of Build Back Better… well, guess what, we the United States spent a lot of time with everything to cause this problem. A major cause of this problem. What the hell do we expect?" "I think we're going to be in a position to have 100 percent clean energy…by 2035 in the United States." "One of the things that MAGA Republicans tried to do during the debt ceiling, they tried to blackmail me, no I'm serious. Every one of these pieces of legislation I got passed, they wanted to wipe out as a condition… from the Inflation Reduction Act to the Infrastructure legislation, across the board." "They're coming back at it again." "Solar's cheaper. Wind is cheaper. It doesn't cause cancer." "We're in a situation where we have in Texas, they have one of the largest, I forget the percentage now, what the percentage of, but something, more than half of all their energy is produced by wind and solar. Guess what? Their legislature was trying to stop it, mindless. I'm not joking. Not a joke. Not a joke. So, you know, folks, greed still drives some people." Said that during this 2020 campaign "there was some frustration" that he didn't announce the details of his environmental plan initially. "That was for a very simple reason, I wanted to make sure that I was able to get labor, labor, organized labor and environmental groups on the same page. They said, 'what are you doing? No one's going to do that.' Well, I spent a lot of time with the IBEW and I said 'guys, your future lies in solar, wind, and alternative energy and it doesn't rely on the fossil fuel industry.' I pointed out to them what was happening." "All of a sudden, if you notice, name me a time if you've ever thought you'd see, within the matter of a week, a presidential nominee endorsed by the environmental community, endorsed by the AFL-CIO, all of them, and endorsed by some of the business community." "I think we have enormous opportunities, enormous opportunities. We still have a long way to go. " "Russia is still a gigantic problem, not just in their energy production but in methane. Last time I met with Putin was in Geneva before he invaded and I told him I said, 'you're in eight time zones and guess what, the entire Artic circle is melting. methane is coming out of the ground more rapidly than you can possibly stop it." Said he had the same conversation with Xi "I think John Kerry's going to be going back there pretty soon," he said about China. "We have to significantly eliminate the use eliminating fossil fuels. But, by the way, you can't eliminate it all right now, it doesn't make even sense to do it all right now, even if you could " Said he talked to Brazil's Lula about their carbon sink. "If you were them, why can't we do what you did? To clear everything. Why can't we do what you did? So, we should be providing, I think the international community should be providing compensation for them for not doing what they're doing." Thanks all, let me know any questions. |
| June 20, 2023 20:05 PDT |
Travel pool #19 Motorcade rolling again at 7:58pm. We arrived back at the hotel at 8:05pm. A lot of people on the street again taking photos of the motorcade. |
| June 20, 2023 20:09 PDT |
Travel pool #20- lid We have a lid! Please reach out with any questions. Have a good night! |
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Pool Reports of June 20, 2023 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/363907