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View Winners → Politics Oct 13, 2022
President Joe Biden. | Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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President Joe Biden attended a fundraiser in Brentwood Thursday evening at the home of television executive producer Marcy Carsey.
More than 100 guests attended the event, which was held beneath a large white tent with a bar in the back, in an outdoor area behind the home’s garage. They sat in rows of chairs facing a podium backed by greenery.
The president participated in a photo opportunity with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrats including Ted Lieu and Brad Sherman, both from Los Angeles County, among other congressional representatives.
“This president came into office with a vision about greatness for our country,” Pelosi said. “This is a great president.”
Biden thanked Pelosi and called her “the single best speaker in American history.” He also said of his legislative record, “It’s fair to say that we’ve gotten more done in the past two years than any president in the past has.”
He concluded by sharing his optimism about the country’s future and urging attendees to support Democrats in the upcoming election. “Please, please, please keep a Democratic House of Representatives,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Biden paid a visit to a Metro subway construction site in West Los Angeles Thursday, touting federal investments in the nation’s infrastructure and saying the dollars will support projects across the Southland, including transit improvements for LAX and the ports.
Overlooking the future Metro D (Purple) Line subway terminus near the West Los Angeles VA complex, Biden said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was making funding available for critical projects locally.
“Every year, people take more than 22 million rides on your subways, your light rail and your buses,” Biden told the crowd of dignitaries and workers. “It’s how so many people get to work school and how tourists and locals explore this world-class city. But the transit system needs an upgrade, badly. You know that. You need to connect more neighborhoods, ease traffic congestion, air pollution, make it easier for people to get around to where they need to go.
“That’s exactly what you’re doing. That’s exactly what you’re doing. But it’s being funded in part through this infrastructure law — through local taxes and the infrastructure law. This project, the extension of the Metro Purple Line, it’s gonna cover one of L.A.’s busiest areas and job centers.”
Biden touted the project as dramatically cutting the time it will take to travel from downtown to West Los Angeles, adding more than 80,000 daily riders to the Metro system while taking 27,000 cars off the roads. He also said it would result in 124,000 fewer tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the air, and would save 14 million gallons of gas.
He pointed to ongoing renovations to the terminal area at Los Angeles International Airport and an eventual rail connection. He also said improvements are being made to improve the movement of cargo in and out of the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.
“We’re building a new four-lane road to the Port of Los Angeles to make it easier for the trucks to drive up to the container terminal, load up their goods for transport,” he said. “And the port of Long Beach, one of the busiest container ports in the nation, we’re going to deepen the channel so ships can move in and out of the harbor faster.”
Biden also talked about efforts to rebuild bridges and other transportation infrastructure across the state, along with ensuring access to the internet in low-income neighborhoods and bolstering water delivery systems.
“It’s been a rough four or five years for the country. … but there’s bright spots where America’s reasserting itself,” he said. “Like here, where the best workers in the world are hard at work building a better future for all of us. … We just have to keep it going, and I know we can. I know we can. I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future, particularly relative to the rest of the world. We’re in a better position than any nation in the world, and every other nation that I’m aware of is aware of it. …
“We just have to remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there’s nothing, nothing that’s beyond our capacity, nothing, when we decide we’re going to do it together.”
After his roughly 20-minute speech, Biden shook hands with attendees and posed for photos. Among the other dignitaries on hand were Mayor Eric Garcetti, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and Reps. Maxine Waters and Nanette Barragan, as well as Lieu and Sherman.
Also in attendance was Rep. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, and a mayoral candidate — who clearly has Biden’s backing in her upcoming runoff election against businessman Rick Caruso.
Biden referred to her as the “soon-to-be” mayor as he began his remarks.
After greeting some attendees, Biden got back into his motorcade for the trip back to his hotel in Westwood, but the caravan made an unannounced stop at Mexican restaurant Tacos 1986 on Kinross Avenue in the village.
Biden interacted with workers and said he was placing a “takeout order for Bass.” When he took out cash to pay for the food he ordered, a worker told him he would get a 50% “public service” discount. Biden gave the cashier $60 and told him to give the next customer a free meal. Biden’s food bill was $16.45 — covering two quesadillas and six tacos.
Biden arrived at LAX just before 5 p.m. Wednesday, and was greeted by Bass, Garcetti and Padilla.
Early Friday afternoon, Biden will fly from Santa Monica Airport to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, ahead of a 3 p.m. gathering at Irvine Valley Community College, where he will discuss “lowering costs for American families,” according to the White House.
Immediately after that appearance, he will return to John Wayne Airport and depart for Portland, Oregon.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday Biden’s appearances in Orange County and Oregon will highlight “his efforts to lower prescription drug costs, protect Medicare and strengthen Social Security, and to fight efforts by congressional Republicans to put Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block and reinstate giveaways to Big Pharma.”
The California Republican Party chided Biden’s visit, calling the state an “odd choice” for the president to choose “as a backdrop for bragging about his failed policies,” noting the national-high cost of gas, rising crime and homelessness.
“If President Biden is looking for a sympathetic audience to high-five him for a job well done, he’s come to the wrong state,” state Republican Party Chair Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement. “Californians are suffering under the reckless policies of Joe Biden and the California Democrats who enable his failed agenda. Make no mistake — the path to the House majority runs straight through our state, and California voters will ensure that Republicans are put in charge to turn our country around from the mess that Democrats have made.”
