Thread by @jaketapper

As is tradition before a meeting to a Joint Session of Congress, the president today held an off the record briefing with some TV anchors. Following are some ON-the-record comments he told us that you may find interesting. 1/

2/ "When I came to office, we had a circumstance that -- we didn’t have much access to information about what the state of play was in the various agencies. We didn’t have -- in other words, there was little transition that took place...

3/ "...So there was one thing that I was certain of, as it got worse and worse, is I had to do something about..COVID-19, and get something moving. But I didn’t know how bad off it was going to be...

4/ "... And the second thing was that there wasn’t a whole lot of time to think about larger initiatives that I had talked about through the campaign...because it just became so clear so many people were hurting. I mean really hurting badly -- being evicted from their homes...

5/"...and their apartments...And that’s why I focused on the Rescue package. It’s not like I had decided on the specifics for the Rescue package two months earlier. And so, we were able to deliver that $1,400, which made a big difference to 85 percent of the households...

6/"...in the country and began to put food on people’s tables. And I don’t know about you all, but I’ve been around a long time; I never thought I’d see lines a mile long with automobiles waiting to get a box of food and people coming up in -- not jalopies, but in decent cars...

7/"...And so -- and the other thing was that: How do you get people back to work as quickly as you can? We were able to provide 1.3 million jobs in the first 100 days, more than any President has ever done in history. But that’s not how we looked at it..."

8/ Biden said it became important to him to demonstrate “We can’t afford to lose out of the box. We cannot afford to lose this first effort. We got to make sure whatever we pick and what we do -- we can’t afford to lose.”

9/ Biden said any failure would add to the impression Americans had that nothing could get done.

And he saw this all through a larger prism: "They’re going to write about this point in history... About whether or not democracy can function in the 21st century. Not a joke...

10/ "...Whether autocracy is the answer -- they were my discussions and debates I’d have in the many times I met with Xi," the Chinese president. "Think about it. You know, things are moving so damn rapidly. Things are changing so rapidly in the world in science and technology

11/ "...and a whole range of other issues that -- the question is: In a democracy that’s such a genius as ours, can you get consensus in the timeframe that can compete with autocracy?"

Biden said "Xi does not believe we can. That’s what he’s betting on...

12/ Xi, Biden said, is "betting on democracy cannot -- cannot keep up with him." And democracy needs to function, he said. "Because if we go four more years like we had in the last four, I really, honest to God, believe we’re in real jeopardy as a nation."

13/ Biden said: "everybody talks about, can I do anything bipartisan? Well, I got to figure out if there's a party do deal with. We need a Republican Party...We need another party, whatever you call it, that’s unified -- not completely splintered and fearful of one another."

14/ He went on: "this government is founded on this notion that -- you know, sounds corny: 'We the People.' And there's nothing we're going to be able to get done unless we can convince the American people it’s possible to do it...

15/ "And so that's why I put so much focus on making my case directly to the American people...That's the basis on which I decided to proceed on all the issues...

16/ "First one: ease the pain, save lives, put people in a position where they have reason to believe that they could actually get back and earn a living and provide for their families. That's how I looked at the first 100 days."

17/ Then he went off the record. Anyway, thought you might find it interesting. See you at 4pm ET
- jpt

And apologies for any typos per usual