Summary
The White House press briefing has concluded, which brings us to the close of the politics liveblog. We’ll be back tomorrow morning with the latest ahead of the president’s State of the Union address. Here’s a look back at what happened today.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the president’s decision to shoot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which Republicans say should have happened immediately after the orb was discovered in US airspace and Beijing has called an overreaction. “What China did was unacceptable. We protected civilians and we gained more intel while protecting our own sensitive information.”
Previewing Biden’s speech tomorrow, Jean-Pierre said Biden has been “heavily engaged” in the writing process. He spent the weekend huddled with advisors and speechwriters fine-tuning the remarks, which she said he saw as an important opportunity to speak directly with the American people about his agenda. “There’ll be no question that this is a Joe Biden State of the Union speech,” she said.
She also reiterated that the Biden administration was willing to brief former Trump officials on intelligence discovered after they left office that China had sent at least three spy balloons into US airspace when they were in charge.
Brian Deese, the outgoing director of the National Economic Council, said the president intended to outline his economic agenda to the American people – touting his accomplishments while also making the case that more work needed to be done. He said the president would directly address the standoff with Republicans over raising the federal debt-limit. Echoing the president, Deese said the state of the US economy was “strong.”
The US is sending assistance to Turkey and Syria, including personnel to help with the search and rescue mission, after a devastating earthquake left thousands dead. The White House said Biden would speak directly to the president of Turkey on Monday.
Biden is en route back to the White House, after a delay that Jean-Pierre suggested was due to State of the Union prep.
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Jean-Pierre indicated that the president would address the US’s relationship with China in his address tomorrow, noting that foreign policy is always an important part of the speech, but she would not give specifics.
She said the US will keep “open lines of communication” with China. Asked how damaging the incident was to the US-China relationship, Jean-Pierre said it was “up to China to figure out what kind of relationship they want”.
She also said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would reschedule his planned visit to China, which was scrapped after the country’s balloon intruded into US airspace.
“When the time permits, we’ll see that trip back on the books,” she said.
She also defended the president’s decision to shoot down the balloon amid Republican criticism that he waited too long to take action: “What China did was unacceptable. We protected civilians and we got to gain more intel while protecting our own sensitive information.”
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