Biden Plans 'Victory Lap' After Signing Relief Bill

PR blitz has already begun
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 10, 2021 6:03 PM CST
Biden Plans 'Victory Lap' After Signing Relief Bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signs the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during an enrollment ceremony on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 10, 2021.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The White House began highlighting the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill immediately after it gained final congressional approval on Wednesday, wasting no time in selling the public on President Biden’s first legislative victory. The West Wing began an ambitious campaign to showcase the bill’s contents while looking to build momentum for the next, perhaps thornier, parts of the president’s sweeping agenda. Biden will sign the bill into law on Friday, but the White House didn’t wait, turning the bill signing into a three-day event. The president tweeted moments after the House of Representatives passed the bill that “Help is here—and brighter days lie ahead." The White House also released a slickly produced video touting the passage, and Democrats on Capitol Hill staged an elaborate signing ceremony.

Biden will make the first prime-time address of his presidency on Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdowns and will use the moment to pitch toward the future and how prospects will be improved by the aid package. Biden and other veterans of the Obama administration say they are determined to avoid repeating the mistakes from more than a decade earlier, when the administration did not fully educate the public about the benefits of its own economic recovery plan. "We didn’t adequately explain what we had done. Barack was so modest, he didn’t want to take, as he said, a 'victory lap,’" Biden said last week. This time, Biden "will be hitting the road, the vice president will be hitting the road, the first lady will be hitting the road" to promote the bill, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

(More COVID relief bill stories.)

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