Joe Biden’s propensity for “flip-flopping” on major policy positions is well known. During his long career in government, he has flipped on violent crime, China, abortion, gay marriage, and the #MeToo movement, to name a few.
This habit has only continued since Biden entered office on January 20. Here are five examples of Biden “flip-flops” from the first 100 days of his presidency.
Ending the filibuster
In 2005, Biden described the filibuster as “not about stopping a nominee or a bill,” but “about compromise and moderation.”
However, as The Daily Wire reported in late March, “President Joe Biden said … that he supports Democrats’ efforts to end the filibuster, and he claimed that the procedural tool had been ‘abused’ when used 250 times last year — though he neglected to mention that Democrats, not Republicans, were responsible for those filibusters.”
“With regard to the filibuster, I believe we should go back to a position with the filibuster that existed when I came to the United States Senate 120 years ago,” he joked, before agreeing “with the notion that the filibuster is a relic of the Jim Crow era, but stopping short of demanding its end.”
“I strongly support moving in that direction,” Biden said. “In addition to having an open mind about dealing with certain things that are just elemental to the functioning of our democracy, like the right to vote. Like the basic right to vote. We’ve amended the filibuster in the past.”
Reuniting families separated at the border
In October 2020, Bloomberg News reported that “Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign announced that he would create a task force on his first day in office that would work to reunite the migrant children that the Trump administration separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border.”
During a presidential debate, Biden said that “kids were ripped from their arms and separated and now they cannot find over 500 sets of those parents and those kids are alone,” describing such a state of affairs as “criminal.”
On February 2, Biden signed an executive order “to launch a long-awaited task force to reunite families separated at the border under the Trump administration.”
However, as Axios reported in early April, “Not one of the hundreds of migrant families separated from President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy has been reunited under President Biden thus far.”
Re-opening schools
In early December 2020, Joe Biden pledged “to bring the coronavirus pandemic under enough control to open most of the nation’s schools during his first 100 days as president.”
“It should be a national priority to get our kids back into school and keep them in school,” Biden said. “If Congress provides the funding, we need to protect students, educators and staff. If states and cities put strong public health measures in place that we all follow, then my team will work to see that the majority of our schools can be open by the end of my first 100 days.”
However, White House press secretary Jen Psaki then walked back this claim in early February, arguing that Biden’s goal was “to have the majority of schools, so more than 50 percent, open by day 100 of his presidency. And that means some teaching in classrooms. So at least one a day week, hopefully it’s more. And obviously it is as much as is safe in each school and local district.”
Psaki then clarified that “some teaching” meant “Teaching at least one day a week in the majority of schools by day 100.”
Then, on April 30, Biden said K-12 schools should “probably all be open” in the fall.
Refugees
In early February, the Independent reported that “President Joe Biden said during a speech at the State Department on Thursday he would bolster US refugee admissions after four years of deep cuts, seeking to raise the annual admissions cap to 125,000 people. That’s a more than 700 per cent increase from the Trump administration’s previous targets for the year.”
However, in an executive order, Biden decided not to raise former President Trump’s “historically low cap” of 15,000 refugees for this year.
As The Daily Wire reported, “The blowback from critics was so severe that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki immediately walked back Biden’s announcement, saying that Biden would be setting a ‘final, increased refugee cap’ by May 15.”
Stimulus checks
Throughout Biden’s presidential campaign, he promised that $2,000 stimulus checks would be part of his COVID-19 relief plans.
“$600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table. We need $2,000 stimulus checks.” Biden said on January 10.
$600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table.
We need $2,000 stimulus checks.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 11, 2021
After taking office, however, Biden signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, which instead of $,2000 payments, included $1,400 checks to some Americans depending on their income.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki argued that Biden reached the $2,000 value by including prior payments, saying, “There was $600 payments, as you know, in the $900 billion package that passed in December. This is $1,400. Together, that’s $2,000. So it would be delivering on the promise he made. And it’s something that he is firmly sticking by.”
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.