President Joe Biden opened a two-day visit to the Pacific Northwest by focusing on the runway and roof of the airport where he landed Thursday than on any of the region's more traditional, natural attractions.
Portland International Airport lies on a tectonic plate fault line but is working on a series of improvements, including a new, earthquake-resistant runway capable of accommodating jets coming and going even after a major natural disaster. The design would be modeled after the runway of the Sendai airport in Japan, which survived the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in that country, according to the White House.
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President Joe Biden opened a two-day visit to the Pacific Northwest by focusing on the runway and roof of the airport where he landed Thursday than on any of the region's more traditional, natural attractions.
Upon arrival, Biden received a briefing from officials on a $2 billion airport improvement project, including upgrades to the complex's roof — which will be disassembled into 20 sections and then pieced back together over the terminal. He posed for pictures with Oregon lawmakers and airport builders.
The White House says about 19.8 million passengers traveled through Portland's airport in 2019, and that air cargo has increased more than 19% since 2019 as online commerce has grown amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“For the future of our planet, for our health, and for our children and grandchildren, we must act now,” the president said in a statement.
President Joe Biden poses for a photo after he toured a construction area at Portland International Airport, Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Portland, Ore. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
The trip is Biden’s first as president to this part of the country and comes as he has increased travel across the U.S. to tout the $1 trillion, bipartisan infrastructure bill his administration backed and Congress approved last fall. Just since last week, Biden has been to Iowa, North Carolina and New Hampshire, and will travel to Seattle after the Oregon stop.
President Joe Biden listens as he tours a construction area at Portland International Airport, Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Portland, Ore. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
Upon arrival, Biden received a briefing from officials on a $2 billion airport improvement project, including upgrades to the complex's roof — which will be disassembled into 20 sections and then pieced back together over the terminal. He posed for pictures with Oregon lawmakers and airport builders.
The president has been trying to promote the idea that he's successfully advanced key policy goals — including providing badly needed funding for long-neglected public works projects around the country — despite Republicans in Congress opposing many of the White House's priorities at every turn.
The GOP counters that Biden has done little to tackle many of the nation's most pressing issues, failing to control inflation that has climbed to its highest levels in more than 40 years or slow crime rates that are on the rise in some parts of the country.
President Joe Biden listens as he tours a construction area at Portland International Airport, Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Portland, Ore. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
The White House says about 19.8 million passengers traveled through Portland's airport in 2019, and that air cargo has increased more than 19% since 2019 as online commerce has grown amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden planned to attend two Democratic Party fundraisers Thursday evening before visiting Seattle on Friday. There, he'll mark Earth Day by speaking about a need to bolster the nation's resilience in the face of threats like wildfire, and a need to rapidly deploy clean energy, the White House said.
Biden called the infrastructure law “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build on these actions and accelerate our nation’s ability to confront the environmental and climate challenges we face.”
President Joe Biden listens as he tours a construction area at Portland International Airport, Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Portland, Ore. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
“For the future of our planet, for our health, and for our children and grandchildren, we must act now,” the president said in a statement.
President Joe Biden listens as he tours a construction area at Portland International Airport, Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Portland, Ore. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
President Joe Biden poses for a photo after he toured a construction area at Portland International Airport, Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Portland, Ore. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to deliver an election-year roast Saturday night before a large crowd of journalists, celebrities and politicians against the backdrop of growing protests over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
In previous years, Biden, like most of his predecessors, has used the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner to needle media coverage of his administration and jab at political rivals, notably Republican rival Donald Trump.
But with protesters pledging to gather outside the dinner site, any effort by Biden to make light of Washington’s foibles and the pitfalls of the presidential campaign will have to be balanced against concerns over the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the perils for journalists covering the conflict. Criticism of the Biden administration's support for Israel's 6-month-old military offensive in Gaza has spread through American college campuses, with students pitching encampments in an effort to force their universities to divest from Israel. Counterprotests back Israel's offensive and complain of antisemitism.
Biden’s speech before an expected crowd of nearly 3,000 people at a Washington hotel will be followed by entertainer Colin Jost from “Saturday Night Live,” who is sure to take some pokes at the president as well as his opponents.
There will also likely be a spotlight on the many journalists detained and otherwise persecuted around the globe for doing their jobs, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March 2023.
But before the president gets to the Washington Hilton — where the event has been held for decades — he was expected to pass hundreds of people rallying along the path of Biden's motorcade and nearby to bring attention to the high numbers of Palestinian and other Arab journalists killed by Israel's military since the war began in October.
Law enforcement, including the Secret Service, have instituted extra street closures and other measures to ensure what Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said would be the "highest levels of safety and security for attendees.”
The agency was working with Washington police to protect demonstrators' right to assemble, Guglielmi said. However, “we will remain intolerant to any violent or destructive behavior.”
More than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week calling on their colleagues in Washington to boycott the dinner altogether.
“The toll exacted on us for merely fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering," the letter states. “We are subjected to detentions, interrogations, and torture by the Israeli military, all for the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity.”
One organizer complained that the White House correspondents' association — which represents the hundreds of journalists who cover the president — largely has been silent since the first weeks of the war about the killings of Palestinian journalists. WHCA did not respond to request for comment.
According to a preliminary investigation released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists, nearly 100 journalists have been killed covering the war in Gaza. Israel has defended its actions, saying it has been targeting militants.
“Since the Israel-Gaza war began, journalists have been paying the highest price— their lives—to defend our right to the truth. Each time a journalist dies or is injured, we lose a fragment of that truth,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said in a statement.
Sandra Tamari, executive director of Adalah Justice Project, a U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group that helped organize the letter from journalists in Gaza, said “it is shameful for the media to dine and laugh with President Biden while he enables the Israeli devastation and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza."
In addition, Adalah Justice Project started an email campaign targeting 12 media executives at various news outlets — including The Associated Press — expected to attend the dinner who previously signed onto a letter calling for the protection of journalists in Gaza.
FILE - Colin Jost speaks at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, Sept. 18, 2018. President Joe Biden is set to deliver an election-year roast at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday, April 27, 2024, before a large crowd of journalists, celebrities and politicians against the backdrop of growing protests over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Biden's speech will be followed by Jost, who is sure to take some pokes at the president as well as his rivals. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
George Washington University students protest the Israel-Hamas war at the university in Washington, Saturday, April 27, 2024. President Joe Biden is set to deliver an election-year roast at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, April 27, 2024, before a large crowd of journalists, celebrities and politicians against the backdrop of growing protests over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, April 29, 2023. Biden is set to deliver an election-year roast at the annual event on Saturday, April 27, 2024, before a large crowd of journalists, celebrities and politicians against the backdrop of growing protests over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
