Biden drilled with questions on migrant children, voting rights, North Korea launching missiles, gun control; 14% of Americans are fully vaccinated; Biden sets new goal of 200 million vaccines in first 100 days; Biden agrees filibuster is relief of Jim Crow era; Tornado touches down near Birmingham, AL; Survivors recount living through harrowing shooting;
The Lead with Jake Tapper
CNN
3.5 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2021
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Biden: “I make no apology” for ending policy on “separating children from their mothers”; Biden: GOP measures to restrict voting are “unamerican… it’s sick”; Biden: Republican party must decide whether to work together or “divide the country”; Biden blames many border issues on Trump administration; Biden: “Going to be hard” to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May first deadline; Biden: “I can’t picture” U.S. troops staying in Afghanistan for another year; Biden: If North Korea escalates, “we will respond accordingly”; At least two injured in Tornado touchdown near Birmingham; Massacre suspect makes first court appearance in wheelchair; Suspect’s lawyer: We need to “fully assess” his mental illness; AstraZeneca vaccine:76% effective against symptomatic Covid; Most states will open vaccinations to residents ages 16+ by end of April; Miami Beach brings back curfew to combat spring break crowds; Rutgers to require Covid vaccine for students in the fall; Biden admin to spend nearly $10B to expand vaccine access;
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We begin today with the national lead 65 days into |
| 0:06.4 | office. President Joe Biden today gave his first solo news conference as he is facing |
| 0:11.9 | crises on several fronts, threats both foreign and domestic. The president today upgrading |
| 0:17.5 | his goal of vaccinating America, now promising 200 million shots in his first 100 days after |
| 0:25.5 | blowing by his original goal 42 days ahead of schedule of 100 million. But Biden spent most of |
| 0:31.6 | the hour on something of defense drilled with questions on the crisis on the border and breaking |
| 0:37.3 | promises of transparency as migrant children suffer in these crammed ill equipped facilities. |
| 0:43.7 | On North Korea firing missiles on how he plans to break or get around potential gridlock in the |
| 0:48.6 | Senate when it comes to protecting expanded voting rights as state Republicans look to retract them |
| 0:54.0 | an effort that a visibly heated president Biden said makes him sick. And on, of course, |
| 0:59.2 | further restrictions on gun ownership or expanded background checks after yet another mass |
| 1:04.1 | shooting in America, the massacre of 10 innocent people in Boulder, Colorado. Now whether Republicans |
| 1:09.6 | get on board on this issue or infrastructure or climate change or anything else, well, |
| 1:14.7 | President Biden said that's up to them. All I know I've been hired to solve problems, to solve |
| 1:21.6 | problems, not create division. CNN's Jeff Zellanine reports from the White House. |
| 1:28.1 | At his first news conference since taking office, president Biden set a new goal of reaching 200 |
| 1:33.0 | million vaccinations before his first 100 days in office. No other country in the world has even |
| 1:38.5 | come close, not even close to what we're doing. I believe we can do it. As questions in the |
| 1:44.8 | eastern of the White House turn from COVID to a crisis on the border. The president decried the |
| 1:51.6 | crowded conditions inside detention shelters at the border as unacceptable and insisted his |
| 1:56.5 | administration was working to control the surge of migrants coming to the U.S. Yet Biden said he |
| 2:01.9 | would treat unaccompanied minors humanely, which he said his predecessor did not. |
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