White House spokesperson: Biden laid a foundation for progress but has more to do

President Biden plans to use his Wednesday afternoon press conference, his first of 2022, to highlight progress made on the economy and pandemic during his first year in office, but he will acknowledge there is more to do, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said.

“What he’s thinking about is the great progress we’ve made in the first year of his presidency,” Bedingfield said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” citing economic growth and improvements in COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.

“He believes that he has laid a foundation for progress,” Bedingfield said. “But he would also be the first to say there’s a lot more to do. There’s a lot more to do, and he wants to finish the job on things that he started.”

“He set forth an agenda that’s going to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, and he wants to finish the job on that,” she continued. “So he’s thinking about all of the important progress we’ve made, but also all that’s left to do as we move forward, and the American people are going to hear from him on that this afternoon.”

Biden will hold a press conference later Wednesday, just his second solo press conference from the White House and his first formal one since November. 

The president will take questions at a precarious moment for his agenda as he hits the one-year mark since taking office.

Biden’s Build Back Better spending proposal, with investments in child care, family care and climate change programs is stalled in the Senate. Voting rights legislation is facing a dead end in the same chamber. And the omicron variant has led to surging case numbers months after Biden declared the U.S. was on the brink of independence from COVID-19.