On Saturday, the White House debuted Biden’s “A Weekly Conversation” series on social media, including YouTube and Twitter.
In the inaugural video, the president, 78, had a phone conversation with Michele Voelkert from Roseville, California, who wrote a letter to Biden after she was laid off for the first time in her life due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s just been a tough time as far as trying to find work,” says Voelkert, who was seen on camera from California, to Biden, who was seated in the Oval Office and later spoke with Voelkert’s daughter on the phone.
“Working is part of who you are. Like my dad used to say, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity, it’s about your respect, it’s about your place in the community. I’ve been saying a long time the idea that we think we can keep businesses open and moving and thriving without dealing with this pandemic is just a nonstarter,” Biden responds.
President Joe Biden.The White House/YouTube
“We’re putting together a plan that provides for emergency relief to people who are in desperate need now. Everything from mortgage payments to unemployment insurance, to rental subsidies to food security for children. It provides for small, medium-sized businesses to be able to be open,” the president said, touting his $1.9 trillion Covid relief package.
• For more from Joe and Jill Biden’s first White House interview,subscribe now to PEOPLEor pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.
Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to make the addresses, called “fireside chats,” after the Great Depression. In 1982, Ronald Reagan took up the practice during his presidency with weekly broadcasts over the radio.
Bush was the first president to deliver weekly addresses both in English and Spanish, though he only recorded 18 videos, according toPolitico, which also reported that Obama posted videos, for which he spoke directly to a camera, almost every Friday.
Trump, who was known to favor Twitter,discontinuedthe weekly addresses less than two years into his only term, until 2018. Trump’s second impeachment trial for Trump is set to start next week.
On Friday, White House press secretary Jen PsakisaidBiden’s weekly address series is part of the president’s effort to “regularly communicate directly with the American people,” adding, “We expect it to take on a variety of forms.”
source: people.com
