James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:43 P.M. EDT
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Hi, good afternoon, everybody. Apologies for the late start. It's been a busy day, so I apologize.
The in-town pool is going to have to gather about 2:05. And so, I will stay beyond that time as long as we can. But again, apologies for starting late.
Okay, as you all know, the President has long talked about our nation being at an inflection point. He has been clear: Democracy is under assault, and we cannot pretend otherwise.
The President will continue to call attention to the threat to democratic integrity and to public safety posed by those who deny the documented truth about election results and those who seek to undermine public faith in our system of government.
Unfortunately, we have seen mega MAGA Republican officials who don't believe in the rule of law. They refuse to accept the results of free and fair elections, and they fan the flames of political violence through what they praise and what they refuse to condemn.
It remains important for the President to state strongly and unequivocally that violence has no place in our democracy. He believes other leaders of both parties on both sides have a responsibility to communicate this very clearly as well.
The President has been emphatic and optimistic that Americans care about protecting our democracy. He has consistently talked about the fact that America has emerged stronger from some of our darkest moments.
And today, there are far more Americans of every background and every belief who reject the dangerous path of political violence than accept it.
The President will continue to speak about the challenges facing our democracy and his enduring belief that America will persevere.
He'll also keep acting to address political violence, including by continued implementation of the first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism that he released in June of 2021.
Now, President Biden has made it his top economic priority to lower costs for American families, and he has been delivering.
He has beaten — beaten Big Pharma, and Medicare is negotiating lower — lower prescription drug prices as well. Gas prices have come down by $1.25 per gallon since June, and Medicare premiums are down as well.
Yesterday was our first day of open enrollment season, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which congressional Republicans want to repeal. That's the first thing that they want to do. Four out of five consumers can find a plan that costs $10 or less a month. Additionally, 13 million Americans will continue to save an average of 800 bucks a year on coverage.
And today, we're announcing additional actions to lower food and heating costs for American families. The Vice President will be in Boston this evening to announce that we're making billions of dollars available this winter to help bring down home heating bills for low-income families all across the country.
We're also making nearly $9 billion dol- — billion dollars through the Inflation Reduction Act available to states and Tribes to help families make their homes more energy efficient.
And the Department of Agriculture is helping bring down food prices at the grocery store through new measures to expand meat- and poultry-processing capacity.
Altogether, these actions and others will provide families a little extra breathing room — you hear the President say that often — and they are in stark contrast to the plans that Republicans in Congress have cooked up to drive up costs.
Congressional Republicans want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which gives us the ability to lower drug prices and that utility CEOs have said will bring monthly energy bills down.
They oppose the release of oil from reserves, which multiple industry analysts have said is helping bring prices down at the pump. They're going to bat for Big Oil, even as they pad the pockets of shareholders and keep gas prices up for American families.
They want to raise the age of Social Security benefits and put the program — the program that so many people worked so hard for, alongside Medicare, on the chopping block.
And they want to restore disastrous tax cuts for the rich.
Lastly, this afternoon, in a few minutes, the President will take part in the culminating event for the Talent Pipeline Challenge, which brings together more than 300 partners to expand workforce development for jobs created by Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, along with the CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, and the American Rescue Plan.
The event comes amid a resurgence of American infrastructure projects and manufacturing driven by the President's economic agenda.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act will create millions of good-paying jobs. And the Challenge is helping create pathways for all Americans to fill those jobs.
At today's event, the White House will host CEOs, union presidents, community college presidents, philanthranpic [sic] — philanthropic leaders, and others who have made commitments to this very challenge.
With that, Seung Min, you want to kick us off?
Q I have two quick topics. On this speech tonight, can you discuss why this speech is considered a political event that's being organized by the DNC versus the similar speech in Philadelphia, which was an official White House event?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, it's a good question. Look, we're less than a week away, a week out, as you all know, from the midterms election. I do want to be careful about talking about elections here from this podium. We do believe in the rule of law in this administration.
And so — but we are seeing, as I just mentioned in my topper, an alarming number of Republican officials suggest they will not accept the results of this election. So we are also — we've also seen recent political violence that is similarly alarming, disturbing. And that rhetoric continues.
The President believes that it is a moment of reckoning. This is not a regular moment in our democracy. This is not a regular moment in time.
And this is — as the President has said many times, we are in an inflection point. And he's going to call it all out, like he did, in very direct terms. And he talked about it just last night in front of 3,000 people in southern — in Southern Florida.
So you'll hear from him. I'm not going to get ahead of the President. But this is why we see this as an important moment tonight.
