US President Joe Biden during a televised town hall event at Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee. Photo / AP
US President Joe Biden held his first town hall forum since taking over from Donald Trump today, speaking about his administration's coronavirus response and his predecessor's acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial.
Biden travelled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, yesterday, where he took questions from regular Americans and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
Cooper asked him about Trump's trial, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's assertion that Republican senators who voted against convicting him were "cowards".
"I'm not going to call names out," Biden replied. "Look, for four years, all that's been in the news is Trump. For the next four years, I want to make sure all that's in the news is the American people.
"I'm tired of talking about Trump. It's done."
That declaration aside, Biden did allude to his predecessor several times throughout the forum. At one point, Cooper asked whether he had spoken to any former presidents to get advice since taking office.
"Have you picked up the phone and called any former president yet?" he asked.
"Yes, I have," said Biden.
"Do you want to say who?" said Cooper.
"No I don't, they're private conversations," the President said.
"But, by the way, all of them, with one exception, have picked up the phone and called me as well."
In recent days, the Biden administration has been providing conflicting timelines for when most Americans can expect to have access to the coronavirus vaccines.
Asked to clear that up, Biden said the vaccines would be available to every American "by the end of July this year".
"We came into office, there was only 50 million doses that were available. We now, by the end of July, we'll have 600 million doses. Enough to vaccinate every single American," he told the audience.
"What we did, we got into office, we found out the supply – there was no backlog. There was nothing in the refrigerator, figuratively and literally speaking, and there were 10 million doses per day that were available.
"We've upped that in the first three weeks that we were in office to significantly more than that. We've gone to Pfizer and Moderna, and we've said, 'Can you produce more vaccine, and more rapidly?' And not only agreed to go from 200 to 400, then they've agreed to go to 600 million doses.
"You had the former guy saying, 'Well you know, we're just going to open things up, and that's all we need to do.' We said no, you've got to deal with the disease before you deal with getting the economy going."
With all that in mind, he suggested the US would be "back to normal" by Christmas, almost a full year away.
"Well, you know, all the experts, all the committees that I put together, they tell me be careful not to predict things that you don't know for certain what's going to happen. Because then you'll be held accountable. I get that," he said.
"Based on all that I've learned and studied, and all that I think that I know, it's a high probability that the vaccinations that are available today, that with those vaccinations, the ability to continue to spread the disease is going to diminish considerably.
"So if that works that way, by next Christmas, I think we'll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today.
"A year from now, I think that there'll be significantly fewer people having to be socially distanced, wearing a mask."
President Biden affirmed that Covid-19 vaccines will be widely available to the general public by the end of July.
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 17, 2021
"By the end of July we'll have over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American." #BidenTownHall https://t.co/Con5hhAkDh pic.twitter.com/RlP6WRmfLX
Biden once again urged Americans to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible. The eligibility rules vary from state to state.
"There still should be priority groups, in case there are not enough for everyone," he said.
"The variants, the Brazilian strain, the South African strain, thus far there is no evidence that the existing vaccinations available from Moderna and Pfizer do not work as well – there's no evidence that they're not helpful. So if you can get a vaccination, get it when you can get it.
"There is some speculation – I've got to be very careful – it may be that a certain vaccination for a certain strain may reduce from 95 per cent to a lower percentage of certainty, it may not be as effective. But it will still be effective.
"But if it's available, and you're eligible, get the vaccine. Get the vaccine."
And he reiterated his call for Congress to pass a new coronavirus relief package, confirming he would not back down for his demand for a US$1.9 trillion ($2.64 trillion) bill.
"Look, some of you are probably economists or college professors or teachers in school – this is the first time in my career, and as you can tell I'm over 30, the first time in my career that there's an overwhelming consensus among economists left, right and centre, in order to grow the economy a year, two, three, four down the line, we can't spend too much," he said.
"Now's the time we should be spending. Now's the time to go big."
Back on the subject of Donald Trump, Biden was asked whether he would allow the US Justice Department to prosecute the former president, should a viable case emerge.
"One of the most serious pieces of damage done by the last administration was the politicising of the Justice Department," he said.
"I made a commitment, I will not ever tell my Justice Department, and it's not mine, it's the people's Justice Department, who they should and should not prosecute. Their prosecutorial decisions will be left to the Justice Department, not me."
More generally, Biden reiterated his promise to seek bipartisan solutions to America's problems – although so far, there is little sign of him succeeding.
"The nation is not divided. You go out there and take a look and talk to people. You have fringes on both ends, but it's not nearly as divided as we make it out to be, and we have to bring it together," said the President.
"You cannot function in our system without consensus, other than abusing power at the executive level. So I really think there are so many things that we agree on that we don't focus enough on.
"We have to be more decent and treat people with respect, and just decency."