Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2021

October 31, 2021

The President. Please, sit down. I apologize for keeping you waiting. We were playing with elevators. [Laughter] Long story.

At any rate, good evening. I believe we've had a series of very productive meetings in the past few days, and I'm looking forward to continuing to make progress on critical global issues that weâas we head off to Glasgow.

Because of what we've seen again here in Rome, what I think is the power of America showing up and working with our allies and partners to make progress on issues that matter to all of us. And there's really no substitute for face-to-face discussions and negotiations among the leaders when it comes to building understanding and cooperation.

I found in all of my meetings here, both the larger sessions and the one-on-one sessionsâ and I had many of thoseâa real eagerness among our partners and allies for American leadership to help bring the world together and solve some of these big problems.

I found my one-on-one engagements with so many of the leaders, and the importance of strong, personal relationships never feels the sameâit never ceases to amaze me when it'sâ you're looking at someone straight in the eye when you're trying to get something done. They know me; I know them. We can get things done together.

And so I want to thank the Italian people, by the way, for the Gâ20, for their hospitality, and congratulate Prime Minister Draghi. He did one heck of a job leading the Gâ20 through a difficult year marked by great global challenges, critically among them: ending the pandemic; driving a broad-based, sustainable global economic recovery; and tackling the climate crisis. I believe we made tangible progress on each of these issues, in part because of the commitment that the United States has brought to the table.

For example, I'm proud that the Gâ20 endorsed the global minimum tax. This is something the United States has been driving for over a year, building momentum up to this achievement. And this is an incredible win for all our countries.

Instead of nations competing against one another to attract investments by bottoming out corporate tax rates, this set a minimum floor of 15 percent to ensure that giant corporations begin to pay their fair share, no matter where they're headquartered, instead of hiding profits overseas.

We also agreed to establish a fund in the future thatâforâcountries can draw on to help prevent, if necessary, and respond to the next pandemic, prepared for the next time around.

Yesterday, together with Prime Minister Johnson and Merkel and MacronâPresident Macron, we came together to reiterate our shared belief that diplomacyâdiplomacyâis the best way to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, and we discussed how best to encourage Iran to resume serious, good-faith negotiations.

I also wanted to note that, even as I've been here in Rome, as you might guessâand some of you, I suspect, do the same thing, American reportersâI've been focused on the vital issues that affect American workers and families at home.

I just finished meeting with a broad coalition of partners on how to address the immediate supply chain backlogs and dealing thatâthat the world has been dealing with and facing, and we're facing back at home, and how to make sure we have access to all the products we needâ

from shoes, to furniture, to electronics, to automobilesâto make sure that we talk about how better to secure ourselves against these future shocks, whether a pandemic, climate change, or other disasters.

And the Build Back Better frameworkâwhich is, God willing, going to be voted on as early asâsometime this coming weekâthat I announced on Thursday includes, for the first time ever, several billion dollars to help strengthen the supply chains to make sure we have access to everything we need.

And it's going to give workers and folks making all these products just a little bit of breathing room. The Build Back Better will alsoâis going to make it easier for them to afford everything from childcare while they are at work, for their kids; 2 years of free high-quality preschool.

And finally, today I was proud to announce, together with our close partnersâEU partners, another critical win for both American workers and the climate agenda. The United States and the European Union have agreed to negotiate the world's first trade agreement based on how much carbon is in a product, as we negotiated the steel and aluminum tariffs that were in place.

We made agreement and, I might add, strong support of the U.S. steelworkers back home. And I want to thank them. I want to thank Tom Conway, who I spoke to today, president of the United Steelworkers, for his partnership in arriving at this deal.

The deal will immediately remove a point of significant tension with our friends in the European Union. And it rejects the false idea that we cannot grow an economy and support American workers while tackling the climate crisis at the same time.

We're talking about a lotâa lotâduring the Gâ20, the COP26. But we also know tackling the climate crisis has been an all-hands-on-deck effort. American workers are a critical part of the solution.

And now I'm happy to take some questions. And I'm told I should start with AP, Zeke Miller. Zeke, you have a question?

Q. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. I didn't recognize you with the mask on. I apologize.

U.S. International Standing/Political Polls/The President's Accomplishments

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Here in Rome, you've tried to showcase that America is back. But back at home, your poll numbers have fallen. Your party's nominee for Governor of Virginia is facing a very toughâa tougher-than-expected race. Your party spent months trying to negotiate the centerpiece of your Democratâof your domestic legislative agenda.

We're 1 year now since your election. Whatâand you have done a lot in your year in office to try to turn the page on the last administration. But we've seen how Presidents can turn the page very quickly from one to the other. So why should the world, you know, believe that when you say "America is back," that really it's here to stay?

The President. Because of the way they reacted. You were here. They listened. Everyone sought me out. They wanted to know what our views were. And we helped lead what happened here.

It's just very simple: You know, if you're honestâyou are honest; I didn't mean to imply you weren'tâbut that we wereâwe got significant support here. Significant support. We're the mostâthe United States of America is the most critical part of this entire agenda, and we did it.

And by the way, look, the polls are going to up and down and up and down. They were high early, then they got medium, then they went back up, and now they're low.

Well, look, this isâlook at every other President; the same thing has happened. But that's not why I ran. I didn't run to determine how well I'm going to do in the polls. I ran to make sure that I followed through on what I said I would do as President of the United States.

And I said that I would make sure that we were in a position where we dealt with climate change; where we moved in a direction that would significantly improve the prospects of American workers being able to have good jobs and good pay; and further, that I would make sure that we dealt with the crisis that was caused by COVID. We've done all of those; we continue to do them. And we'll see what happens.

But I'm not running because of the polls.

Q. And justâMr. President, you said somethingââ

The President. Next question was from Jeff Masonâfor Jeff Mason of Reuters.

Infrastructure, Jobs, Education, and Family Assistance Legislation/Climate Change/China/Russia

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. A question on climate and energy. Can the world and others be confident that you will be able to follow or doâmake good on the promises on climate change that you willâthat you have made, when you're at Glasgow, without a vote having taken place on your bill?

And on the same topic, climate: Some NGOs are already saying that the Gâ20 commitments today were underwhelming. How do you respond to their criticism that the Gâ20 response is not a good sign for COP26?

The President. I'll answer both questions.

Number one, I believe we will pass my Build Back Better plan, and I believe we will pass the infrastructure bill. Combined, they have $900 billion in climate resistanceâin dealing with climate and resilience. And it's the largest investment in the history of the world that's ever occurred, and it's going to pass, in my view. But we'll see. We'll see.

You know, you've all believed it wouldn't happen from the very beginning, the moment I announced it, and you always seem amazed when it's alive again. Well, you may turn out to be right; maybe it won't work. But I believe we'll see by the end of next week, at home, that it's passed.

With regard to theâand by the way, that infrastructure bill delivers an awful lot of things in terms of everything from tax credits for electric vehicles, to making sure we are able to invest, literally, billions of dollars in everything from highways, roads, bridges, public transit, airports, et cetera. But we'll see.

Theâand with regard to the disappointment: The disappointment relates to the fact that Russia andâand including not only Russia, but China, basically didn't show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change. And there's a reason why people should be disappointed in that. I found it disappointing myself.