Biden swipes at Trump in first speech since announcing re-election run
President Biden on Tuesday criticized former President Trump and said he wants to ‘finish the job’ in his first speech since announcing his run for re-election.
Hours after President Biden announced his candidacy for re-election, he got a rock star reception from labor union officials, who cheered wildly as the president touted his pro-union economic agenda at a Washington, D.C., conference
Chants of "four more years!" rang out as Biden told labor union representatives his administration is fulfilling the economic promises made by his predecessor, former President Trump.
"All right. Thank you, thank you," Biden said. "Folks, we got a lot more work to do though."
Unmistakably returning to campaign form, Biden enthusiastically and, at times, loudly boasted that legislation passed during his first term is supplying good union jobs for the middle class, calling it a "blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America."
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President Biden acknowledges his supporters after addressing the North America's Building Trades Unions legislative conference at the Washington Hilton April 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
He touted the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan Infrastructure Law as major achievements that show government investment in the economy creates wealth for working people, in contrast to Republican "trickle down economics" plans Biden says only benefit the rich.
Biden made several jabs at congressional Republicans and Trump, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. His message was that while Trump promised to make America great again by returning jobs and manufacturing home from overseas, it is the Biden administration that is actually making it happen.
"Under my predecessor, Infrastructure Week became a punchline," Biden said. "On my watch, infrastructure has become a decade headline."
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His speech emphasized bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States from China and ensuring that more products are made in America with American materials. The president said the COVID-19 pandemic showed the need for supply chains to return to America, particularly for products like semiconductors, and he boasted that, under his administration, private companies have invested more than $400 billion to advance manufacturing and clean energy projects at home in the United States.
Biden addresses the North America's Building Trades Unions legislative conference at the Washington Hilton April 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Republicans, according to Biden, are proposing "cuts in important programs" that "millions of working and middle-class Americans count on," while "pushing some tax giveaways for the wealthiest Americans."
"They'd rather see kids and seniors struggle to eat what they need. People on Medicaid lose their health care. Veterans lose access to doctor's visits, and as part of it — by the way, not a joke — and cut subsidies to big oil that made $200 billion and Big Pharma," Biden said.
The president hammered the House Republican bill to address the debt limit, calling House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's proposal to roll back spending to fiscal year 2022 levels the "same old trickle down dressed up in MAGA clothing." He claimed the GOP plan would kill 780,000 jobs and said "working and middle-class seniors" are "paying the price."
Demanding that Republicans stop using the debt limit to negotiate spending cuts, Biden even quoted Trump as saying, "I can't imagine anyone ever thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge."
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., over the weekend, said House Republicans are "the only ones in Washington that are actually putting a responsible plan out that will raise the debt limit."
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks during an event at the New York Stock Exchange in New York April 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
"Think about it. For more than 80 days it's been since I sat down with the president on Feb. 1 to negotiate, to work through this, and he's ignored it," McCarthy said.
Republicans plan to vote on the measure Wednesday, sources have told Fox News Digital. The bill needs 218 votes to pass the House. If passed, the bill will head to the Senate for a vote. Senate Republicans have spoken favorably about the bill.
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"It's not where everybody gets 100% of what they want, but when we send this to the Senate, we're showing that, yes, we're able to raise the debt ceiling into the next year," McCarthy said. "What we're doing is we're being responsible fiscally and bringing our house back in order.
"It doesn't solve all of our problems, but it gets us on the right path and this gets us to the negotiating table, just as government and America expect us to do.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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