Jennifer Rene Psaki

“ Q On the Climate Summit, I know you don’t want to get ahead of the decision on emissions targets for 2030, but broadly, how is the administration thinking about striking the balance between a target that’s aggressive and that will meet the needs of — the demands of climate change, versus ones that may not be achievable and could lead to job losses in the next 10 years? ”

“ And our objective, at this point in time, is to hear and listen to all of those, and to determine what the path forward may look like in coordination and cooperation.We have — the President’s bottom line here is that the only thing we cannot do is — is fail to invest in our nation’s infrastructure, rebuild our economy, and create millions of jobs. ”

“ We are changing the policies of the last administration. We are changing the policy of not welcoming in people from Africa or people from the Middle East. That was the biggest factor preventing refugees come — from coming in during the last administration. ”

“ But, you know, if you look at areas like electric vehicles or, you know, re- — weatherizing infrastructure, these are areas where there — there’s alignment on — they’re creating jobs, they’re investing in industries, they’re putting people back to work, and they’re also doing it in a way that is, you know, helping us reach our climate targets. ”

“ And certainly the COVID pandemic is front and center for people across this country for understandable reasons; more than 550,000 — more than 560,000, I believe, people have died. People are worried about their loved ones, their family, and they want to hear more on what we’re doing.I will say that there are also some discussions and policies in — to go back to an earlier question, the discussions about Aleksey Navalny, in a separate category, are actually an example of this as well, where conversations in private can be more effective. ”

“ I was more characterizing that we recognized that we needed to be clear and make sure people were understanding what our objective was and that the President remains committed to welcoming in refugees from around the world.That — the announcement on Friday was intended to be a first step intended to convey clearly that we are overturning what we felt was a xenophobic policy of the past administration to prevent people from many parts of the Middle East and Africa from applying for refugee status and to resume flights and that we remain committed to welcoming refugees in. ”

“ More than half of all adults in America have now received at least one shot. More than 32 percent of adults are fully vaccinated. Eighty-one percent of seniors have at least one, and just about two thirds are fully vaccinated. At least 90 percent of Americans now have a vaccine site within five miles of where they live. ”

“ But our focus is on determining the most effective steps that will help get the pandemic under control. We don’t have anything further in terms of next steps or a timeline, but we are considering a range of options. ”

“ So there were many parts of the Middle East, parts of Africa where refugees could not apply and could not come into the United States. And part — as a result of that, there were very limited number of refugees — in the low thousands — that had come over in a extensive period of time during the Trump administration. ”

“ I’d also note our initial budget calls for increasing funding for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division by millions of dollars in order to advance accountability and reform for abusive police practices.
And finally, multiple states have enacted bipartisan policing reform statutes in recent months. And we believe that those are encouraging signs in some states of the country. It’s not the only thing that needs to happen; we need federal legislation. But that’s also something we certainly have been encouraging. ”

“ Q I did a quick review of the President’s daily schedule, and I found that the White House had 38 listings that dealt with the COVID pandemic. MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm. Q You conducted 32 COVID press briefings, 20 items dealing with the economy and jobs, 6 on infrastructure, but just 2 on guns. One was happenstance in Georgia. You know, if the daily schedule represents a public expression of the White House’s priorities, why shouldn’t we conclude that the guns and violence is not a top priority? ”

“ We are — still have a lot of work to do, but we — that is a step forward, in our view.The President does not feel that children coming to our border, seeking refuge from violence, economic hardships, and other di- — dire circumstances is a crisis. ”

“ We’re eager to have those conversations with leaders in Congress.Go ahead.
Q Thanks, Jen. India is facing a critical shortage of raw materials necessary to make vaccines. And officials there are urging the U.S. to lift the U.S. embargo of exporting those raw materials. My colleagues in India are reporting today that the Biden administration recently told them — recently told India that its request was being considered and would be active, in quotes, “at the earliest.” ”

“ And in order to make sure people know that they’re eligible, we’re blitzing the airwaves, including local media, constituency radio and television, and also have a range of officials doing national interviews, especially health and medical experts. ”

“ Does he — that goal was always aspirational. It was always a huge goal — 10 times what the Trump administration had welcomed, in terms of refugees. And so we’re going to put out an — we’re going to put out a number — he will put out a number in advance of May 15th.
Q But you say it’s “aspirational,” but clearly you thought it was possible, given the Secretary of State told Congress about it, the President committed to it. So why put a number out there if you can’t meet it? Because it does give people false hope that you’re going to let in 62,500 refugees by the end of September. ”

“ And when the jury makes their deliberations and concludes and a verdict is found, I’m certain the President will speak to that. Q And you talked how the White House is preparing for whatever that verdict is. Congresswoman Maxine Waters said, over the weekend, that they need to — “We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active. We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.” ”

“ MS. PSAKI: I don’t think you’ve articulated to me what our change in policy was. What was our change in policy from the morning until the afternoon? Q The executive order from Friday morning said that “The admission of up to 15,000 refugees remains justified,” period.And yes, there was a caveat that you could raise that cap later, but, I mean, it explicitly says that right there. ”