Today is the first day of fall, i think, and you described the summer as the cnn of substance. I just want to look back at the pieces of legislation that we just had an to get your sense of how they add up, because sometimes the messiness of the legislative process and the fact that its been so uncertain, its hard to remember if there was actually a theory we hind some pieces of legislation or if there is a vision behind it all. Well, there was. First of all, when you talk about the biden agenda, a lot of it is built on the obamabiden agenda, we were able to expand Health Care Coverage to a number of people, we were able to pass Climate Change legislation because we had the Paris Agreement that president obama worked on. So we built on a foundation, but i think we took that foundation to a new direction. The first is, we face different problems and we faced in the obama administration. The world has changed. So we inherited a whole different process. That led to two things. One, a determination to go big, to meet the moment. We inherited one of the worst economic situations since the great recession, so we had to impose some Large Solutions to deal with those very large problems. The climate process has gotten so much worse than 12 years ago. Getting closer and closer to critical endpoints there. So larger and more aggressive solutions. The second is, we put manufacturing and making it here in america as a centerpiece. Watching the past two years and seeing the difficulties with supply chains during the pandemic and how hard it was to bring things to this country and inflation impacts and so on and so forth. It also reflected a desire to make things here in america, to bring back manufacturing is a critical component economy so when you look at the chips act which passed this summer, you look at the infrastructure bill that passed last year and the inflation reduction act, again, last month, we talked about legislation and its really stimulating a revolution in American Manufacturing and making things here in this country. Its interesting, because most Democratic Institutions get judged on how they expanded the social safety net and it seems like youve gotten congress to pass trillions of dollars in some of that goes to expanding the social safety net for sure but a lot of it goes to a different theory of how the state can be used to create change or built economic look, again, i think weve had to address the problems that we found and the biggest problems that we found were a country with a pandemic killing literally thousands of people a day, hundreds of thousands of cases a day when we arrived and so we had to ramp up the response to that and the economic consequences of that, its easy to forget when joe biden came to office we would , turn on the tv at night and people were at football stadiums waiting for food. The Unemployment Rate was 10 and we had 20 Million People out of work. And businesses close, and schools closed. So we needed an economic response that addressed that. The president ran on a promise to build back better. And to see that at the other end of getting over this immediate crisis, we would build the economy that he likes to say, from the bottom up in the middle out that would create good job, and an Economic Future for everyone in this country whether they went to college original. Whether they went to college or not. The kind of jobs they could raise a family on, and it would recenter american strength. Not just in financial markets, not just as a Global Trader of goods, but as a country that makes the critical elements of production. That is critical to the clean energy transition. I think if we are going to say were going to make this country and were going to increase our reliance on solar power, our reliance on wind power and electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging stations, making those things in this country so we have a reliable supply, we arent depending on foreign imports of solar panels or windmills or batteries for electric cars. Its critical to knowing that new Clean Energy Economy is going to be reliable and sustainable here in america. Did it feel like philosophically you were going in a different direction just given the changes in globalization and given and the role of the state that emerges from these pieces of legislation . I think what we did is consistent with the philosophy that President Biden has had for his 40 years in public life which is a fundamental belief, if you give people a chance, you the kind of economy where hardworking people can get jobs and raise a family and get ahead, thats the country we want. This is not a fundamental realignment of relationships between the government and the private sector. This was just putting in place the tools and opportunities that makes this country work for everyone. I wanted to ask one question about inflation and the economic vision, when i listened to jay powell yesterday talk about trying to engineer a soft landing and what it means for labor markets i kept thinking about how joe biden talks about jobs and how jobs are essential for the dignity of individuals. Do you think theres a risk that we get to a place where the medicine is worse than the disease or how does joe biden think about those trade offs between jobs and inflation . Look, were careful to not comment on the decisions and actions of the fed. Theyre independent and make their decisions and thats the right way to run the economy and bring inflation down. I will say we are determined to create jobs and keep the Unemployment Rate low and make sure Everyone Wants a job can have one. Right now, we have the Unemployment Rate near the lowest its been in 50 years and weve created more jobs in the president s first two years than any administration in history and were proud of that record and well fight for that record. I wanted to talk about the pandemic. One thing that is striking to me, you may be the only person i know in washington who hasnt contracted covid in the course of pandemic. First of all, how do you do that . [laughter] second of all, the president i think took some heat the other day for saying the pandemic was over and people made it sound like he was adlibbing those comments. First of all, ive been fortunate. I mask up quite a bit and im i have the benefit or liability of being at work so much im not going out to restaurants or other places like that. Having no life is a good way to not have covid but its not not really like the official policy of the administration. Look, what the president said the other day, was i think clear if you look at his whole statement. The sentence sentence after the pandemic is over we have a lot of work to do on covid. The gist of that is what weve been saying all along, we have progressed on the pandemic to where it no longer controls our lives. This event is inperson. That wasnt the case last year or the year before that. People are here. People out. People are going to restaurants and movies and other places if they have free time. So were living in a different country than we were. And to that extent, the kinds, what the pandemic meant to us in 2020 is over and its behind us. Now why is that . That is because we now have the tools to manage and make covid less dangerous for those people who take advantage of those schools. And there are throw tools in financial we have booster shots, we didnt have them a year ago. Its hard to imagine but a year ago there were no booster shots and now we have them. Virtually no one who is fully boosted winds are going up to the hospital with covid. So that tool, by the way, they are free. They are widely available. You can find a place five miles within your house where you can get one. Most often without an appointment. We have that. Secondly, we have tests. We did not have addhome tests widely available. Even commercially available 14 months ago. Thats another Transformative Development and it allows you if you think you have covid to find if you have covid and get treatment. Ill get to that in a second. Those tests are widely available free. Third, we have treatments. Paxlovid in particular which was not even available except in very small supplies seven months ago wasnt available at all a year ago. And the statistics show clearly that even if you are not boosted, if you find out you have covid soon enough and you get paxlovid which is free and widely available, you will not get seriously gravely ill from covid. We have just in the past year, changed the dimension of attacking the pandemic. It doesnt mean that covid is gone. Of course it isnt. But it does mean that this is a very, very different disease. Sadly, we still have 400 people a day dying from this disease. Virtually every one of those deaths, could be prevented if the person who passed away had gotten boosted, had gotten tested and taken paxlovid. Given the politicalization of the pandemic and the way that theres half the country that is paranoid about any sort of government interventions, given the way that the republicans blocked the passage of the last covid package, do you worry that if the next pandemic comes, just given the politicization of disease that we wont be able to respond in the same sort of way that we did last time. Well, first of all, its not half the country but it is a quarter of the country and its tragic. When the pandemic first hit, it became very divisive and political and people were like its divisive and political but when the vaccine gets here surely everyone will take the vaccine. And then we got the vaccine and all of a sudden the vaccine was political and divisive and a lot of people didnt get vaccinate and then the boosters came. Now we have people just will not get tested in time and theyll find out they have the disease in time and they get to the hospital too late and they cant be helped or they refused to take paxlovid. Its truly tragic. We dont have to guess what will happen when the next epidemic comes here. Its already here. Its monkeypox. And its obviously not the same kind of pandemic that covid is in any way, shape or form in terms of the scope, scale and size. But weve gone from a handful of cases to about 22,000 cases. And we have responded. We have gotten people vaccinated more quickly than any country in the world. 600,000 americans have been vaccinated and we are the the first country in the world to use the tpox treatment and we have bent the curve on monkeypox. Its coming down, down about 50 in the past month or so. It has been difficult to get funding and lets make it simple. We acquired the capacity too and were shipping to anyone who wanted them free covid tests to your home. It doesnt seem political. Democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, you want a covid test well ship it out. Congress wont give us the money for postage. We have the test and no ability to ship them to peoples homes. How did that be political and become divisive . I dont know. But i do worry that we have we have so many great scientists, so many great publichealth officials, so many great people working away on these things, and yet we cant really fund in a Sustainable Way the efforts to fight this. Its terrifying, right. That we did a brief window with covid when the nation came together and made investments in publichealth infrastructure and unfortunately a lot of those investments were fleeting investments, we dont have the infrastructure, theres no Way Department of Homeland Security was erected in the wake of 9 11 and so we dont have the more robust implement s emerging from this crisis. Not yet. We need to get there. Midterms are coming up which is something that could complicate your life in various ways, shapes or forms. Could you i mean, i can imagine various ways in which if things tip the wrong way or about to get quite hellish. What worries you about how your life is going to change the most if republicans take power . Well, first of all im an executive branch official, i dont engage in election advocacy. Trying to avoid one other form of trouble which is getting in trouble with the office of special council. What i want to what is clear to me is this without getting into election advocacy. The two parties, the democrats and republicans in congress they stand for Different Things and the choice just couldnt be clearer. And the contrast couldnt be clearer. And i think obviously one issue that this is front and center on is the issue of abortion, reproductive rights. The day the decision came down, the president said there is one of two ways this will go. It will come down that everyone has the right to choose or eventually the republicans would get control of the house and senate and ban abortion. We know what that looks like now. Lindsey graham came out to ban abortion but to impose a fiveyear criminal penalty on doctors who provide Reproductive Services to women. I just want you to think about what kind of country this would be if doctors walked around, knowing, that they could go to jail for five years for providing needed services to their female patients. Who will go into that profession . Who will provide those kinds of services . Who is willing to risk a prison term . Im sure there will be some brave doctors, i dont doubt that. But we will see an exodus from the medical profession if they know theyre going to risk a five year prison sentence. What senator graham has said if the republicans win the midterm elections, he will put that bill on the floor, and they will fight for that bill and we will see doctors at risk of those prison sentences so i think i dont worry about me or us at the white house or whatever. I worry about the sharp divide we have in this country between democrats and congress and the agenda theyre pushing and the extreme agenda we see republicans pushing on these issues like abortion and Social Security and medicare on the chopping block every five years. I could go on and on. This is a very wide difference that we have in our country right now. Could the politics of ukraine shift . Look, i think so far if i want to be clear. Im not going to engage in advocacy but i believe democrats will hold the house and hold the senate. So, this will not come to pass. But i will say on ukraine, we have been lucky fortunate to have a bipartisan support for the things we have done on ukraine. And strong bipartisan support. Its an issue thats not been divisive and i hope that will continue next year under once again a Democratic Senate and house. I want to take the last bit of time to reflect big picture about the president himself. Youve known him for a very long time. How has he changed since he was Vice President . I know he has been around for a long time and he is treated like he is a piece of furniture. He is not treated like a piece of the furniture. Good to know. But, how has he changed . Has he changed at all since he has become president . Well, first, i went to work for joe biden 36 years ago. The person that i worked for for 36 years ago is the same person who is president today. He has the same core values and the same core beliefs fighting for the same things. But i obviously think there are responsibilities that you have as president agnew have in no other job in our government, not even as Vice President , he is the final deciding on whether or not we are going to send our troops in harms way he is the final decide err on which legislation we will push forward or not. And particularly the period around the start of the ukraine war, where he went out publicly and said, hey, Vladimir Putin is going to invade ukraine at a time when most of our allies did not believe that would happen, and he really put himself out there and his reputation and his International Leadership out there. Those are the kinds of decisions and responsibilities that he has to have as president. That you dont need to have as Vice President. I think that definitely is something that he carries around and its definitely something that weighs on him everyday. But what i would say, what i said before about him is, he is a man who has gone through great tragedy in his life in his personal life and what i knew is, when i walk into the oval office every morning theres nothing i can say to him that is worse than things that have already been said to him already. Theres no news i can give him that is sadder the news he has already gotten in his life. And i think that gives him a poise and balance in the job that serves him very well as president. When he talked in that 60 minutes interview about 2024, which his answer left a little bit of a hedge in it, what would stop him for running reelection again . He intends to run and thats kind of the formulation he has to give not to trigger federal election law and not require us to file a lot of forms, whatever. It is definitely his intention. Obviously something could happen. He is a believer in fate. He has seen things in his life so he wont say where he will be in december today. He respects the fact that a lot of things can happen but it is his intention to run and i believe he will run. Thank you so much. Thank you, i appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. On friday, House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy talks about why voters should vote for republicans in november. He will be speaking in pittsburgh with live coverage at 9 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan. You can also watch on her free mobile video app, cspan now. Listening to programs on cspan through cspan radio just got easier. Tell your smart speaker, play cspan radio, and listen to washington journal, daily at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. Weekdays at 5 00 p. M. And 9 00 eastern, catch washington today for a fastpaced report on the stories of the day. Listen to cspan any time. Just tell your smart speaker, play cspan radio. Cspan, powered by cable. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more, including mediacom. 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