President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga took a select amount of questions during Friday's joint press conference on the White House lawn. The first question came from the AP, on gun control. President Biden quickly became passionate with his answer.
President Biden answers a question on whether gun control should be prioritized instead of infrastructure: "I've never not prioritized this."
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The reporter asked "what would you say to many Americans who voted for you about the legislative progress on gun control and police reform, having to wait while we pursue infrastructure, given that we continue to see these incidents with mass shootings and also police-involved shootings, including the incident a lot of us saw in Chicago most recently. Do you feel any need to reprioritize your agenda?"
Biden quickly defended himself in his answer as he declared "I have never not prioritized this," and brought up examples of passing an assault weapons ban, as well as a ban on magazines with more than ten clips of bullets.
He also referenced his executive orders on guns, stressing certain parts of that action. "I strongly support, I strongly support the universal background checks, which I continue to push, Congress has to step up and act, the senate has to act, I strongly support and continue supporting the ban on assault weapons and magazines that hold more than ten bullets. It doesn't mean that I can't also be working at the same time on the economy and on covid. But it's not a question of my being able to set the agenda as to what you can move to first. I continue and strongly, strongly urge my friends in Congress who refused to bring up the bill to bring it up now," he said.
The president became particularly fired up as he said "it's a national embarrassment what's going on," claiming that "Every single day there is a mass shooting in the United States if you count all those who are killed out on the streets of our cities and our rural areas."
He even raised his voice as he finished his response. "Who in god's name needs a weapon that can hold 100 rounds, or 40 rounds, or 20 rounds. It's just wrong and I'm not going to give up until it's done," he concluded.
While the president appeared with the prime minister at the press conference, that Suga was greeted by Vice President Kamala Harris drew lots of attention.