President Biden has reached the 100-day mark of his presidency. It's a metric that has, over the years, become something of a campaign cliché. Candidates make these big promises about what their administrations can accomplish in those first few months. They do it to signal their priorities and to make clear their very big ambitions. What will you do in your first 100 days? We'll just fix everything. I think it's probably the best way to go. Upon being elected, I will give the United States Congress 100 days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws. And if they fail to do it...
then I will take executive action. Look at our website, amyklobuchar.com. I have over 130 things that you can do in the first 100 days. In the first 100 days of my administration, no one, no one will be deported at all. On the campaign trail and as president-elect, Biden made a lot of promises about what he'd be able to achieve in his early days. He made promises around mask mandates and vaccinations, around repealing Trump's tax cuts and rejoining global alliances, and around guns and policing. And 100 days in, the president says he's come through on many of his promises. In his first address Wednesday night to a joint session of Congress... Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Good to be back. Biden took major credit for his coronavirus pandemic response and for the $1.9 trillion relief package. We will have provided over 220 million COVID shots in those 100 days. Thanks to all the help of all of you. We're marshaling.
With your help, everyone's help, we're marshalling every federal resource. Biden also touted his American Jobs Plan as a way to rebuild the middle class. The American Jobs Plan is a blue-collar blueprint to build America. And he appealed to his opposition, saying that he's taken steps toward unity and bipartisanship. Thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, and the overwhelming support of the American people, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, we did act. How much progress has Biden really made on his 100-day pledges? How far has he come on his promises? And what remains unfulfilled?
This is Can He Do That, a podcast that explores the powers and limitations of American government in a time of deep division. I'm Alison Michaels. After Biden's election, it was clear that his response to the coronavirus pandemic and its economic effects would be the administration's top priority. So let's start there. Really, from the beginning, his administration felt that the coronavirus, more than anything, would be where his administration rose or fell. If they didn't handle that properly, they wouldn't.
be able to do much of anything else on his agenda. That's Matt Visor, national political reporter for The Washington Post. So early on, he set a couple of key metrics. One was on vaccinations. He talked in early December before he took office about a pledge to do 100 million shots within 100 days. It became clear pretty early on that that goal was going to easily be surpassed based on the number of vaccines that were happening by the time he took office and then early in his administration. When I came into office, you may recall, I set a goal that many of you said was that kind of way over the top. I said I intended to get 100 million shots in people's
I can say we're not only going to meet that goal, we're going to beat that goal, because we're actually on track to reach this goal of 100 million shots in arms on my 60th day in office. He kind of fiddled around with that goal, and eventually it became clear that they were going to surpass it, and he did on day 58. And so he changed the goal to 200 million shots in 100 days, which they also surpassed. When tomorrow's vaccine and vaccination numbers come out, we'll show that today we did it. Today we hit 200 million shots on the 92nd day in office. 200 million shots in 100 days, in under 100 days, actually.
It's an incredible achievement for the nation. The other thing was school reopenings. Another kind of big item that I think that they felt like was going to be tangible to most people. So the president talked about opening the majority of schools. It became clear upon more questioning what he meant by that. And he meant in-person learning five days a week for the majority of schools. He also met that goal. It was a bit more modest because there were a decent number of schools that were open fitting those requirements when he took office. But he also met that goal as well. The one last thing related to the coronavirus was sort of a big thing that Biden talked about in the beginning was a mask mandate. And he went back and forth throughout the campaign on sort of how he would go about doing that. There were times where he said that he would...
have a federal mask mandate and require everybody in the country to wear a mask. They did decide within the administration that it was a little bit shaky legal ground. So what Biden did instead was have a mask mandate on all federal property, as well as things that the federal government can control. And then he encouraged states and local governments to follow through. Some did, some didn't. The president's view is well known. We all know it quite well about why mask wearing is important. Again, based on health and medical experts, he speaks with governors of both parties on a regular basis. He obviously traveled with the governor. And now we'll wait and see sort of whether he lifts that or changes that. But that was another sort of just key metric. They wanted tangible things that people could feel and understand.
And that's really how they approach the coronavirus in terms of his promises. And some of those metrics, you know, he met, as you said, 200 million doses in his first 100 days, and that number is continuing to rise. But he also promised very specific things around how that distribution would happen, like federally funded vaccination sites, mobile vaccination clinics, training for people to administer shots in areas where it was harder to get shots to individual people in their homes and such. Has he fulfilled that portion of the promise? Has the distribution effort really met what he laid out as expectations? I think in some cases, yes, and in some cases less so. But I do think that in general, people have found access to vaccines to grow more widely available over the course of his presence.
presidency, whether or not they were through the specific venues that he was talking about, it has become widely available. They've lowered the age thresholds for which people can get the vaccines. I think at this point, the biggest struggle that the administration sees is people who just don't want to get a vaccine and convincing those people to get it. Access now is less of an issue, I think, for people. And quite frankly, they will concede that the issues with Johnson & Johnson have not helped that effort where, you know, people may be skeptical a little bit of a vaccine that had to be pulled, however briefly, because of the blood clotting issues. So I think that going forward, that that's the goal that they sort of see next to try to tackle. Did you know you can play the Washington Post's games for free?
Find the crossword, keyword, ridges, and on the record in the Washington Post app or at washingtonpost.com slash games. No subscription required. So when we look at Biden's coronavirus promises, we've really broken it down into sort of three categories, shots, masks, and schools. And masks, clearly, that was a big pivot from the Trump administration, this federal mask mandate or the efforts around it. But in terms of the growth in the distribution of vaccines and the movement towards the reopening of schools, how much of that was really set in motion by the Trump administration versus really embraced and grown in the first 100 days by the Biden administration? You'll notice that Biden gives Trump little to no credit. He rarely talks about Trump, the development of the vaccine, the federal government's role in spurring the development of it. And we should note, it's mid-December when the vaccines start to get rolled out. Biden is not president at that point. So I do think that the Biden administration can take-
credit for the tricky task of making sure that the vaccine is widely available. But the groundwork for that was in many ways laid before he took office in terms of the development of the vaccine. The distribution and the acceleration in distribution, I think Biden is overseeing that portion of it. But he rarely mentions Trump. Trump allies will also point out that Biden's goal of 100 shots in 100 days was an average of a million shots per day. And when Biden took office, we were starting to get around that point of a million shots per day. So by the time Biden takes office, Trump has already put him on a point at which Biden had already set his goal.
Right, but it's a long tried strategy in politics to under-promise and over-deliver, as we know. So moving on to the economy, when President Biden entered, he had a massive economic agenda, and he really came through on a major coronavirus relief package. He signed the American Rescue Plan into law. But how far does that really go in achieving Biden's overall goals for the economy? So he's got a long way to go. I mean, in terms of his campaign promises, there were sort of sweeping things about remaking the American economy. That's why my economic plan is all about jobs, dignity, respect, and community.
Together we can and will rebuild our economy. And when we do, we'll not only build back, we'll build back better. With modern roads, bridges, highways, broadband, ports and airports as a new foundation for economic growth. With pipes to transport clean water to every community. And the $1.9 trillion is ambitious, clearly, and did a lot of what he had promised, particularly late in his campaign, to sort of get the economy back on stable ground. But there are a lot of aspects of that that are temporary. You know, they're temporary tax changes. The child tax credit is a big deal for people, but it expires. You know, it lasts for a year. So the stimulus money is a big deal for a lot of people as well, but it's a one-time payment. So I think for Biden, who wants to have a legacy that really changed the way that our economy operates, the way that the wealthiest Americans are taxed, and the way that middle-class Americans earn more benefits, whether through education or other tax credits, those things have not yet been done.
So those are things that Biden still is hoping to accomplish. But so far, he hasn't. So I think the $1.9 trillion was a big down payment and a big indication of where he wants to head. But a lot of that stuff is temporary to sort of get people back on their feet, not to help them sustain them for the long term. And part of that comes from potentially a battle over taxes and how you pay for such things. So on the campaign trail, progressives spoke about their fear that Biden would go easy on high-income earners and corporations as part of his economic agenda. For 30 years, I have stood with the working families of this country. I have taken on every special interest there is out there.
And that is what I will do in the White House. That's a very different record than Joe's. That is not a different record than mine. That is a totally different record than yours. All right? I mean, it's manifested in this campaign when you're, you know, getting all this money from, you know, wealthy people and billionaires.
Can you discuss what kinds of new taxes Biden is considering to pay for his agenda? So there's taxes that would be taxed on investments. He would change the corporate tax rate. He would change the threshold for high income earners. And it wouldn't quite eliminate the Trump tax cuts that happened, but it gets closer to it, which is an area, frankly, where some may feel that Biden is falling a little short. He said on the campaign trail that on day one, he would repeal the Trump tax cut. Donald Trump has put us in a horrible situation. We do have enormous income inequality. And the one thing I agree on is we can make massive cuts in the $1.6 trillion in tax loopholes out there, and I would be going about eliminating Donald Trump.
tax cuts for the wealthy. Vice President Biden, thank you. A campaign pledge that even at the time seemed unrealistic, but that was one of the things that he did say that he would do. And so now he's at a point of trying to make those changes. And we're seeing the first indications of that. They have not fully unveiled their proposal, but all indications are moving toward increasing the corporate tax rate, which is at 21% now to 28%. But prior to the Trump tax cuts, it was at 35%. So again, he's making progress, but not as much progress as he said that he would on the campaign trail. So as we said, the economy and the pandemic were these two very clear items on Biden's agenda for his early days. But then there were these other issues that he's made promises about, but perhaps...
didn't quite expect them to rise to the forefront of national conversation within his first 100 days as they have. Those are things like gun control, voting rights, and I've even had police reform to that. So let's talk about those things, and we'll start with gun control. As a candidate, Biden really promised to tackle gun control, and he promised to do it early in his presidency. I made a commitment, and I mean it. I made a commitment that I'm going to do everything in my power, in office or out of office, to get those assault weapons off the street, which I've done once already, and to get those clips that have multiple bullets in them not for sale, not be able to sell silences. In reality, it seems like he's taken limited action. So what's going on there?
So on that one, it was another thing that he said during the campaign, and maybe take a step back, that during the campaign, gun control groups were very active. There were all kinds of forums that all of the Democratic candidates would head to. It was a very active part of the primaries, kind of encouraging candidates to go further on gun control. And Biden went along with that. He made pledges to, on day one, send legislation to Congress that would have changes in the liability protection for gun manufacturers. It would close background check loopholes, change the waiting period. It would do a lot of the things that Biden tried to do in 2013 when he was in the Obama administration as vice president. And those things did not become law. So he did.
Didn't do those on day one. And it took him quite some time, actually, after several mass shootings before he did sign several executive actions that crack down on ghost guns, which are homemade. They don't have a serial number. And he did a couple of other executive actions, but they fall well short of what activists want Biden to do, want Congress to pass. And it's not like he's given up. Biden continues to call on Congress to take action. But he also, in a fairly revealing comment in March, talked about it being a matter of timing. Wondering if you've made a decision either about sending the manufacturer liability bill that you promised on day one to Capitol Hill.
or executive actions like going after ghost guns or giving money to cities and states to battle gun control. All the above. It's a matter of timing. As you've all observed, successful presidents, better than me, have been successful in large part because they know how to time what they're doing, order it, decide priorities, what needs to be done. That, I think, frustrated a lot of people who want to see.
swifter action on gun control issues. That's somewhat similar to his approach to police reform in that he talks a lot about it, but maybe hasn't made quite as much progress as he potentially could. He's promised to address it, but at the same time, his administration has dropped plans to form a police oversight commission. So what have we really seen from Biden in terms of addressing police reform in a tangible way? They point to some of the people that they've appointed. They have people at the Department of Justice who take civil rights issues seriously. We've not yet seen a lot of the effects of that, though. They've not yet started getting underway. You will notice in the aftermath of the George Floyd verdict, the Department of Justice is examining the Minneapolis Police Department. So they are taking actions.
doing some things that are under the Biden administration's control, but you haven't heard Biden, aside from after that verdict, elevate police reform as a dominant issue that he views as crucial for his administration. As you point out, gun control, those two issues are quite similar where there have been events that have occurred that required the president to respond, but the things that he's done have fallen short of sweeping changes that people are eager to see and that he pledged to see through during his campaign. Yeah, I'm going to add a third example to that mix, which is his promise to pass the Voting Rights Act in his first 100 days. So the issue of voting rights has driven a lot of national conversation surrounding Georgia's voting law. And yet we haven't really seen much from Biden at this point regarding progress on the Voting Rights Act. Where does that stand?
It's the same. There's rhetorical weight placed on his pushing for Congress to make it happen. And when you ask White House officials, who is Biden talking to? Is he pressing senators who are on the fence on some of these things? Is he bringing it up? They don't get into a huge amount of what Biden may be doing behind the scenes because he's not doing a huge amount publicly other than semi-regular calls for Congress to do something. But it's not elevated to a crisis level for the administration because they see other fires that they need to put out. So then looking at all of this taken together, how has Biden performed in his first 100 days in terms of meeting the promises that he made before he entered office? You know, his first two weeks was really dedicated to undoing.
Trump. There were almost a record number of executive orders that he signed in those first, you know, 10 days or so, where it was really about resetting the clock, you know, undoing all of the Trump actions that they did not like, rescinding the ban on travel from majority Muslim countries, rejoining the World Health Organization. There was sort of a series of things that they really wanted to do on that respect. And they met most of those. I think the rest of his first 100 days has really been...
the coronavirus and all of the impacts, whether it's health impacts or economic impacts. He did convene a climate summit. They did get back into the Paris Climate Accords. So there's some progress being made on the climate front, but the sweeping things that need to be done in order to meet commitments for the Paris Climate Accords are just beginning. So there's a lot of things where if you're somebody who voted for Biden and wanted to see a lot of these changes, you may not yet be frustrated because he's showing you some signs of progress. He's showing you some signs that he does care about gun control. He does care about police reform. He does care about voting rights, but those things have not yet been done. And so I think that people are still...
being patient with him on some of those, but they've not yet seen the firm action that they want to see, you know, in the coming months. So then what do you expect in his next 100 days or in the coming months to be the biggest priorities? So I think it's this $3 to $4 trillion infrastructure package that does have a lot of economic changes. It has a lot of changes related to climate change. And that gets back to sort of dealing with Congress. We've not yet seen that really from this president. He's spoken with Republicans. He's had them to the White House, but his legislative priorities have been passed almost, you know, on a strictly partisan basis. So we've not yet seen any truly bipartisan legislation. There was somebody I was talking to.
recently, who was saying that Biden has been the consoler in chief in the first 100 days, but he hasn't yet been a true salesman. He hasn't sold his agenda and convinced skeptics to sign on to it or put political pressure on them to sign on to it. I think he's trying to tee a lot of that stuff up, but we've not yet seen that. And I think that that's the next 100 days is sort of whether Biden can usher in these other big pieces of legislation that are going to require convincing moderate Democrats to stay on board and convincing some moderate Republicans to come along with him. And he's not yet done that. And Republicans haven't been willing to do that either. So I think that's kind of the next phase for Biden that we'll be sort of watching for.
partisanship can really come through. Yeah, exactly. Matt, thank you so much for your time. Great. Thanks for having me. This has been another episode of Can He Do That? For complete coverage of Biden's Wednesday night address to a joint session of Congress, visit WashingtonPost.com. Can He Do That is a team ever here to post. It's produced by Arjun Singh and Sharla Freeland with logo art from Greg Manifold and theme music by Ted Muldoon. Did you know you can play the Washington Post's games for free? Find the crossword, keyword, ridges, and on the record in the Washington Post app or at WashingtonPost.com slash games. No subscription required.