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The Biden administration on Thursday will announce plans to establish immigration processing centers throughout Latin America to help slow down the number of migrants coming to the U.S., according to an email obtained by POLITICO.

The regional centers will be located in Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador and eventually Costa Rica, the memo said. They will allow the U.S. to process asylum claims at the centers, before the migrants try to move on to the U.S. southern border.

News of the centers comes just two weeks before a seismic shake-up in border policy, the lifting of Title 42. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce details at a joint press conference Thursday morning at the State Department. The White House will also release a fact sheet about the regional processing centers and other efforts to prepare for the May 11 end of Title 42, the Trump-era border policy that has been used more than 2 million times to expel asylum-seeking migrants on public health grounds.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Administration officials on Thursday will detail a multi-pronged response, according to two people with direct knowledge of officials’ discussions. The White House is trying to strike a balance of deterrence with creating additional legal pathways.

Administration officials have been intensely planning for the end of Title 42 since before the New Year, weighing a patchwork of policy solutions. May, already the historically busiest month for migration, is expected to bring one of the greatest policy challenges yet for the White House. And the timing falls at a challenging political moment for President Joe Biden, who just launched his 2024 reelection campaign.

In place of Title 42, officials also plan to rely on a new rule that will bar some migrants from applying for asylum in the U.S. if they cross the border illegally or fail to first apply for safe harbor in another country. The administration has been working to finalize and implement the rule — a version of a Trump-era policy often called the “transit ban” — before May 11.

The administration will also lean on expedited removal processes under Title 8, which would allow the government to remove from the country anyone unable to establish a legal basis — such as an approved asylum claim.

Deterrence measures will be paired with efforts to expand legal pathways and expedite processing. The Biden administration is also expected to detail its efforts to expand refugee resettlement in the hemisphere, a former administration official told POLITICO.

Sometimes landing a gig is a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

That was the case for comedian Roy Wood Jr.

Wood was at the White House earlier this year shooting a segment for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” when he bumped into White House Correspondents’ Association president Tamara Keith on the West Wing driveway.

Keith struck up a conversation and mentioned she was looking for a comedian to host this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner and asked if he would be interested. “It was one of those things that was meant to be, or like a cosmic sign,” Keith said.

West Wing Playbook caught up with Wood ahead of Saturday’s gala to talk about dinners past and present. Below is an edited version of our conversation.

How does the comedy world view getting asked to speak at the Correspondents’ Dinner?

I don’t know if comedians really view the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as an honor as much as a necessary deployment. 

You’re being asked to put together a set to entertain the most powerful people in the country. Half the room hates the other half of the room. And then there’s a third of the room who’s just there to report on the two halves that hate each other. And there’s also people watching at home with totally different comedic barometers.

You don’t make it sound fun.

Uh huh. But if you can survive that, it’s a hell of a medal to have on your shoulder. 

Which comedians do you think have done an especially good job at the dinner?

They all came at different times and different political climates in our country. So I think it’s very difficult to say. Cedric the Entertainer probably had one of the funniest ones. But it was the Bush administration.

You have to remember that these comedians at these dinners — it’s one thing on the day, and then weeks and years later people love you or hate you more. I’m sure Seth Meyers thought he did just fine until Trump got elected.

Do you feel like there’s too much pearl clutching, especially if you look back at Michelle Wolf’s speech?

People clutch pearls because outrage is a marketable commodity. The degree to which you all — and I say you all as the offended parties — ran around and talked about that speech forever was — I’m not gonna say a nothing burger, somebody was offended — but let’s not make a whole meal out of this for weeks and weeks. 

Same thing with Larry Wilmore and the “N word” thing. People were talking for way longer than they should about a man saying that word. The person he said the word to was not offended — so what are we accomplishing in the bigger scheme of things?

You don’t think Washington is good at laughing at itself.  

I don’t think Washington has a sense of humor. 

I think the press has a sense of humor, so long as it’s not about their network. Washington has less of a sense of humor because I’m asking them to laugh at people that tomorrow they have to try and pass a law with. 

If you have a case going before the Supreme Court, when I crack that Clarence Thomas joke — and there will be Clarence Thomas jokes — god forbid the camera cuts to you laughing.

What’s your writing process for this speech?

There’s certain people I know that we will probably hit and certain people that we will probably leave alone. And then there’s other people that we will monitor to decide how much we really want to get into what’s going on.

I do feel like there’s a degree of tranquility around just knowing that this gig is difficult because you cannot plan every single joke weeks in advance. It’s even harder to run the material anywhere because everybody has a phone and they’re recording. Where are the safe places for me to even put these jokes on stage? 

How do you get your news?

I’m more of a local news person because local news truncates national stories down to the bare bones, so I feel like I get just the essentials. 

Two or three times a week I read a newspaper from another city. 

I’ll also do TMZ, The Shade Room or Baller Alert, just for celebrity gossip. I try to stay up on that because sometimes it ties into the national conversation on bigger things.

Do you have a go-to reporter on the White House beat?

When Yamiche Alcindor was there for PBS. I also enjoy April Ryan and her perspective on things a lot. 

There’s also this kid, Gabe Fleisher, who does this newsletter called “Wake Up To Politics,” and I’ve been reading that kid since he was like 14. His ability to break stuff down and just go, ‘here’s what’s happening’ and remain as agnostic as possible — it’s just amazing. 

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is open to meeting again with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — but would not give in to the Republican’s demand for negotiations on the debt limit.

“Happy to meet with McCarthy,” Biden said at the end of a brief press conference at the White House. “But not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended. That’s not negotiable.”

The president’s stance comes as McCarthy tries to muscle a bill through the House that he’s cast as the GOP’s opening bid in the high-stakes standoff. And it reflects the White House’s continued skepticism that the speaker ultimately won’t be able to keep Republicans united behind a single set of demands.

“We’re not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling — that is a separate matter,” a White House official said. The official did concede that talks with Republican leaders would likely occur in the future should McCarthy secure the votes to pass his legislation. But, even in that scenario, the debt ceiling would not be discussed. “Obviously,” the official said, “we want to talk about the budget.”

While the president’s position hasn’t changed — he has consistently said he won’t negotiate on the debt limit — a successful House vote would put pressure on the White House to reengage. House Republican leaders insist that they will pass their debt ceiling bill this evening, advancing a package that consists of deep spending cuts and provisions rolling back some of Biden’s key legislative accomplishments.

Though McCarthy is on the cusp of moving a measure through the House, the scramble to get there has emboldened the White House to stick to its longstanding position that Congress pass a clean debt ceiling increase.

Biden on Wednesday dismissed a question about the GOP bill, telling reporters that “they haven’t figured out the debt limit yet.”

The stalemate has unnerved some Democrats in Congress, who worry that the two sides have gotten no closer to a resolution in the nearly three months since Biden first met with McCarthy and as financial experts warn that lawmakers may only have until June to avert default. But the party has remained solidly behind Biden’s bid to separate the debt ceiling from broader budget negotiations.

“It is completely appropriate for Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate, to debate and discuss our spending levels,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally. “It is not appropriate to use the loaded gun of default to coerce a particular menu of cuts.”

Senate Democrats have made clear that they won’t take up the GOP debt limit bill if it passes the House, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling it a “wasted effort” that would “bring us dangerously closer to defaulting.”

Biden officials, meanwhile, are preparing to ramp up attacks on the swing-district Republicans who back the House GOP bill, accusing them of taking a toxic vote that will prove deeply unpopular with voters.

“They’re going to vote to literally undercut the new investments in the last couple months in their own districts,” the White House official said. “Good luck.”

Still, Biden allies said there is recognition that the president will need to jumpstart talks soon on the broader budget — and show that he’s open to working with Republicans, even if he sticks to his demand of a clean debt ceiling.

“It’s important for him to meet with the speaker, but he has to be very clear on what we will and will not do,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.)

White House aides have discussed the potential for a meeting with Republican leaders, but no final decisions have been made on whether and when one will occur. The official cautioned that any meeting would likely not be one-on-one; rather, Biden would seek talks with the top four House and Senate leaders, and potentially top appropriators as well.

“The president’s been very clear: There’s the debt ceiling and then there is government funding, the two of them cannot come together,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democratic appropriator in the House. “I don’t see any reason to believe that he would back off of that.”

Biden and McCarthy have not talked about the budget or the debt ceiling since early February, when they met at the White House for a sit-down that both sides characterized as cordial but, ultimately, unproductive.

Since then, Biden has called for House Republicans to put out a detailed budget before he’d be willing to meet again.

The GOP is now unlikely to craft a full budget proposal of their own. But with time ticking and the threat of default rising, the White House indicated McCarthy’s bill may be close enough.

“It’s not a real budget,” the White House official said. “But they’ve now put forward a plan.”

President Joe Biden on Wednesday brushed off concerns about his age and sagging approval rating, saying voters will have to judge “whether or not I have it” in his first public comments addressing his 2024 reelection bid.

Speaking at a Rose Garden press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Biden was asked to respond to Americans who believe he shouldn’t run again. The president was measured in his response, noting that he may not be the only candidate to take on his predecessor, Donald Trump, but that he knows the “danger he presents to our democracy.”

Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, said he “can’t even say that number” referring to his age. He said it “doesn’t even register” with him.

But voters will be the ultimate decider about whether he’s too old for office, he added. His answer marks his first public comments on the 2024 race after Tuesday’s launch — and his first addressing the obstacles hovering over his reelection bid.

“I respect them taking a hard look at it. I’ve taken a hard look at it as well — I took a hard look at it before I decided to run,” Biden said. “I feel good. And I feel excited about the prospects, and I think we’re on the verge of really turning the corner in a way we haven’t in a long time.”

Biden also said he has seen the poll numbers and is in a similar position to past presidents running for reelection.

“What I keep hearing about is that I’m between 42 and 46 percent favorable rating. But everybody running for reelection in this time has been in the same position. There’s nothing new about that. You’re making it sound like Biden’s really underwater,” he said.

The president then touted specific legislative accomplishments and economic growth.

“And the reason I’m running again is there’s a job to finish.”

Of the three presidents who failed to win a second term in recent decades, two had approval ratings roughly equal to Biden’s. But former Presidents Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan also hovered around Biden’s numbers, and both were reelected.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to Washington this week is hitting on three incendiary issues: nukes, Ukraine and the technology tug-of-war with China.

Yoon and President Joe Biden are coming together to toast the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korea mutual defense treaty which committed the two countries to assist each other in the event of “armed attack and communist subversive activities.”

But their meeting coincides with South Korea feeling particularly vulnerable to North Korea’s military threats and China’s increasingly expansive power projection in the Indo-Pacific — and wanting assurances that the U.S. is ready with support.

The U.S., meanwhile, has some big asks for the government in Seoul as it works to cement South Korea as a regional cornerstone in its effort to rally democracies against China, Russia and other autocratic countries.

A nuclear pact

The U.S. and South Korea announced a new agreement on Wednesday that reinforces the U.S. commitment to defend Seoul in the event of an attack by Pyongyang, just ahead of Biden and Yoon’s meeting at the White House.

In the agreement, called the Washington Declaration, the U.S. commits to taking steps to strengthen its military support for South Korea, while Seoul publicly disavows any intention to develop nuclear weapons, said senior administration officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

One commitment the U.S. has made is to regularly dispatch “U.S. strategic assets” into South Korean waters, including an upcoming port visit by a U.S. nuclear ballistic submarine, the first such deployment since the 1980s, one of the officials said. The countries have also agreed to create a joint U.S.-South Korean Nuclear Consultative Group designed to provide transparency to Seoul on U.S. military planning.

South Korea has been looking for such assurances amid Pyongyang’s nuclear saber rattling. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened an “exponential” increase in nuclear weapons targeting Seoul in January, and urged the mass-production of short-range missiles that could menace the south. South Korea lost its decades-long positioning of U.S. nuclear weapons on the peninsula in 1991 when President George H.W. Bush ordered their removal in a failed effort to encourage North Korea to abandon its own then-nascent nuclear weapons program.

The new declaration outlines “a series of steps that are designed to strengthen U.S. extended deterrence commitments and strengthen the clarity by which they’re seen by the Korean public as well as by neighbors in the face of advancing [North Korean] nuclear missile capabilities,” the official said.

The Biden administration’s requirement that Seoul renounce the development of nuclear weapons reflects nervousness that South Korea is considering doing just that.

In January, Yoon floated the possibility of South Korea developing its own nuclear weapons capability as a deterrent to Pyongyang’s threats. Hewalked back that idea a week later, but South Korean concerns about the country’s vulnerability to North Korean attack persist. Those concerns are partly due to “a lack of confidence in the U.S as a committed ally,“ said former ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris.

Public polling last year found that more than 70 percent of South Koreans wanted a nuclear weapons capacity to counter North Korea’s.

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to reposition tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea as a deterrence message to North Korea. The Biden administration says that’s not going to happen. “There is no vision of returning U.S. tactical or any other kind of nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula as there was in the Cold War,” a second senior administration official told reporters at the briefing.

The Biden administration faults Beijing for not using its diplomatic and economic leverage to curb North Korea’s threats to South Korea. “We have been disappointed that China has been unprepared to use its influence and good offices to weigh in clearly with North Korea about its many provocations,” the first senior administration official said. To mitigate any potential misunderstandings the Chinese might have about the expanded U.S. military presence, the administration is briefing Beijing on its details “and laying out very clearly our rationale for why we are taking these steps,” said the official.

Arming Ukraine

But Yoon can also expect pressure from Biden to supply munitions to Ukraine. South Korea provided Ukraine $100 million last year and responded to Biden’s call for more such assistance with a $130 million pledge last month to support Kiev’s energy infrastructure and humanitarian needs.

But Ukraine’s depleted ammunition stocks have prompted both NATO Secretary-General Jen Stoltenberg and the Biden administration to push Seoul to provide Kyiv munitions. Seoul says its Foreign Trade Act bars selling weapons to countries at war or for re-export to third countries.

“President Biden will hope to have a conversation with President Yoon about what it means for all like-minded allies who continue to support Ukraine through a difficult few months and will want to know what Seoul is thinking about what the future of their support might look like,” said the second senior administration official.

Biden may make Yoon’s agreement to override that restriction “part of the price of admission,” to his White House meeting, said David Rank, former Charges d’Affaires at the U.S. embassy in Beijing and veteran Korea desk official at the State Department.

Seoul “has been historically good at helping out quietly when the U.S. asks it to,” Rank said.

Tackling tech and China

The two sides will also have to navigate some thorny economic issues spawned by recent Biden administration legislation. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 included a provision that reserved a tax credit for electric vehicles to domestically produced cars, locking out EV imports from South Korean automakers including KIA and Hyundai.

The Biden administration also wants Yoon to block South Korean semiconductor manufacturers from filling any shortfall in chips created by Beijing’s possible ban on sales by the U.S. company Micron, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Yoon is looking for reassurance that “Biden’s economic agenda is not a protectionist one and we’re going to work together on issues like export controls and friend-shoring,” said Kathleen Stephens, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea.

 Those issues are on the Biden-Yoon agenda, but there is no hint of any breakthroughs. “The leaders will be discussing semiconductors and mutual [economic] approaches tomorrow,” the first senior administration official said, declining to provide more details.

President Joe Biden is asking for four more years in office “to finish the job.”

But whether voters grant him that wish in 2024 will depend heavily on how well they think he did in keeping all his promises from 2020.

And when it comes to promises, Biden sure made a lot. From defeating the pandemic to reviving the economy, safeguarding voting and access to abortion and reestablishing America’s stature abroad, POLITICO reviewed some of candidate Biden’s biggest pledges — and evaluated how well President Biden followed through.

Here’s our verdict, using the following scale: Kept his promise, in progress, stalled, broke his promise.

Combatting Covid-19

GRADE: KEPT HIS PROMISE

What Biden pledged: “When I’m elected your president, I’m going to act, and I’m going to act on day one. Folks, we’re going to act to get this Covid under control. … I’m never going to raise the white flag and surrender. We’re going to beat this virus. We’re going to get it under control, I promise you.”

What he’s done: Biden rolled out a far-reaching plan to rein in the pandemic on his first day in office, prioritizing efforts to mass-vaccinate the country and spark a rapid economic recovery that saw significant initial success.

The administration suffered multiple setbacks in the following months — notably misjudging both Covid’s ability to evolve and Americans’ willingness to keep up the fight against a deadly virus. But Biden did manage to blunt the pandemic threat through multiple rounds of shots and treatments that have allowed most people to return to their pre-pandemic lives.

The White House is now poised to end the Covid national emergency in May, in what amounts to the symbolic end of the Covid crisis. Deaths from the virus are now down to their lowest point since the early days of the pandemic. Still, Biden’s inability to stamp out Covid more completely means he will face the ongoing threat of a resurgence.

Rebuilding the economy

GRADE: Kept HIS PROMISE

What Biden pledged: “We’re going to invest in infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing, and so much more. We’ll create millions of good paying American jobs and get the job market back in the path to full employment.”

What he’s done: Biden presided over a swift economic recovery buoyed by bills he championed allocating billions of dollars in Covid aid, as well as major investments in manufacturing and infrastructure projects.

Three years after Covid shuttered much of the country, the unemployment rate is near 50-year lows, the economy has added tens of millions of jobs and wages are rising on average.

But high inflation through much of 2022 overshadowed those gains for many, denting Biden’s economic record and miring the administration for a time in debates over whether its stimulus efforts were too aggressive. The White House has since emphasized various cost-cutting initiatives aimed at balancing out rising prices, most notably winning reductions in certain prescription drug costs. The pace of inflation is now cooling, though not enough yet to fully alleviate concerns.

Ending gun violence

GRADE: STALLED

What Biden pledged: “No one needs an AR-15. … I promise you, I will get these weapons of war off the street again and out of our communities.”

What he’s done: Biden oversaw passage of the most comprehensive gun safety legislation in nearly three decades. The only problem: It fell well short of taking the kinds of decisive actions that he pledged to deliver on the campaign trail.

The gun safety law passed in June 2022 made only limited improvements to background checks and did nothing to restrict access to assault weapons. And despite Biden’s promise to ban those weapons in the aftermath of several mass shootings over the last year, he’s made no progress toward convincing Congress to act.

The White House in the interim has issued a range of executive orders aimed at reducing gun violence, but even Biden himself recently admitted he’s effectively powerless on the issue, saying he’s “gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns.”

Restoring U.S. leadership abroad

GRADE: Kept HIS PROMISE

What Biden pledged: “As president, I will ensure that democracy is once again the watchword of U.S. foreign policy, not to launch some moral crusade, but because it’s in our enlightened self-interest. We have to restore our ability to rally the free world so we can once more make a stand upon new fields of action together to face new challenges.”

What he’s done: The Biden administration angered its allies and hurt its global credibility by botching the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the Taliban reconquered in 2021. Barely six months later, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden formed a global coalition that has held together through more than a year of fighting, providing Ukraine with the aid necessary to defend its territory far more effectively than originally expected.

That alliance has shown signs of shakiness at times, but has never cracked, winning Biden praise both at home and abroad for rebuilding America’s reputation as a diplomatic force.

Yet that’s a job that will only grow more challenging as the war drags on and with no clear consensus on an endgame in sight. Biden must also repair the damage done by an embarrassing leak of classified documents that illustrated spying efforts on a handful of allies and concerns about the state of the war in Ukraine.

Strengthening voting rights

Grade: stalled

What Biden pledged: “One thing the Senate and the president can do right away is pass the bill to restore the Voting Rights Act. … If they don’t, I’ve been saying all along, it’s one of the first things I’ll do as president if elected. We can’t let the fundamental right to vote be denied.”

What he’s done: Biden’s attempts to muster momentum for legislation strengthening voting rights fell flat, even after he backed abolishing the filibuster to pass it.

The president later signed the Electoral Count Act, which clarified the counting and certification process for electoral votes, but the administration has made little major headway on an issue that Biden made a central element of his 2020 campaign.

Judging by Biden’s reelection announcement video, voting rights will play a prominent role in his 2024 run as well. But there’s little apparent ability to do much in the interim that would help make good on his initial pledge.

Protecting access to abortion

Grade: In progress

What Biden pledged: “We’re in a situation where I would codify Roe v. Wade as defined by Casey. It should be the law, and there’s no reason why, if the Supreme Court makes the judgment that everybody’s worried about with these appeals going to the Supreme Court, that in exchange, I would codify Roe v. Wade and Casey.”

What he’s done: The Supreme Court ended up making the judgment that Democrats were worried about, striking down the constitutional right to abortion. But though Biden has advocated codifying Roe v. Wade since then, he doesn’t have the votes to do it.

The White House has instead done as much as it believes it can do on its own, including unraveling Trump-era restrictions on family planning funding and taking steps to protect access to medication abortion and help women travel across state borders to obtain the procedure. It’s also defending against other lawsuits aimed at further restricting access to reproductive health.

But those threats are ongoing, and will continue to test Biden’s desire to balance safeguarding abortion access with his reluctance to take more drastic steps pushed by activists that he worries could further draw the administration into a protracted legal battle.

Expanding health care

Grade: KEPT his promise

What Biden pledged: “I’ll not only restore Obamacare, I’ll build on it. … I’m going to increase subsidies to lower your premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket expenses, out-of-pocket spending, surprise billing. I’m going to lower prescription drugs by 60 percent, and that’s the truth.”

What he’s done: Biden followed through on multiple health care promises with the passage of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, expanding Obamacare subsidies and placing new restrictions on pharmaceutical prices.

Those provisions fell somewhat short of what Biden aspired to — placing an expiration date on the subsidy expansion and limiting a cap on insulin prices to only certain patients. But the IRA did also accomplish a longtime Democratic priority: Empowering Medicare to negotiate the cost of certain drugs.

Biden must still ensure those policies are effectively implemented. But taken together, they’re expected to make coverage more affordable and accessible for millions of people.

Overhauling immigration policies

GRADE: Broke his promise

What Biden pledged: “We’re going to restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers, and those fleeing violence and persecution.”

What he’s done: In an approach that’s dismayed Democrats and immigration advocates, Biden maintained the strict Trump-era border policy known as Title 42 that has allowed the government to quickly expel migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The administration now plans to lift Title 42 next month, though there are few signs that Biden will significantly loosen his approach to immigration. A new policy rolled out earlier this year would largely prohibit migrants from applying for asylum at the southern border.

And though Biden rolled back some of former President Donald Trump’s most stringent immigration policies, his administration’s approach grew more restrictive after record numbers of migrants began arriving at the border. Biden has encouraged Congress to negotiate more comprehensive legislation to overhaul the immigration system, but there has been no progress toward accomplishing that.

Tackling climate change

GRADE: Kept his promise

What Biden pledged: “My time table for results is my first four years as president, the jobs that we’ll create, the investments we’ll make, and the irreversible steps we’ll take to mitigate and adapt to the climate change and put our nation on the road to net zero emissions no later than 2050.”

What he’s done: Biden is following through on his climate goals largely through a range of investments in the IRA designed to accelerate the nation’s transition toward clean energy.

Experts project the legislation could help cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by up to 42 percent by the end of the decade, compared to 2005 levels. Further regulatory changes that the administration plans to impose could help Biden meet his pledge of cutting total emissions in half by 2030. Biden also took unilateral steps requiring the federal government to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

But those are long-term projects, and will require the administration to implement all the new policies — and do it fast enough for them to have the necessary environmental impact to meet Biden’s timeline. There are also lingering questions over how the White House will juggle its climate ambitions with ongoing fossil fuel projects, after Biden broke a commitment to halt drilling on federal lands, most notably by approving the Willow oil and gas project in Alaska.

Expanding child and elder care access

Grade: Stalled

What Biden pledged: “My childcare plan is straightforward, straightforward. Every 3- and 4-year-old child will get access to free high quality preschool like students have here. And low- and middle-income families won’t spend more than 7 percent of their income on childcare for children under the age of five.”

What he’s done: The president’s vast plan to expand the “care economy” was cast aside during negotiations over the IRA and has yet to recover. Once a centerpiece of his vision for rebuilding the post-2020 economy, lawmakers axed policies to build out access to child-care and long-term care over concerns it would be too costly.

And despite Biden’s continued support for revisiting those efforts, there’s been no significant renewed push yet to get those policies through a divided Congress. Instead, Biden recently signed a series of executive orders directing federal agencies to try to make care more accessible.

A top Democratic super PAC will launch a six-figure digital advertising blitz in six battleground states on Wednesday, a day after President Joe Biden kicked off his 2024 reelection campaign.

Priorities USA, according to plans first shared with POLITICO, will also announce its overall investment target of $75 million for the 2024 presidential cycle — $5 million more than its 2020 target. The group will use the money to reach voters in key battleground states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Most of the money will be used for online advertising, but the super PAC will also direct funds toward training Democratic organizers on digital campaign skills, its fellowship program and also its voting rights push, as the group continues to invest in voter protection litigation before the next election.

The president’s long-awaited announcement on Tuesday allows Biden to begin fundraising for what will be an expensive campaign. But his April launch also gave the green light for Democratic groups like Priorities USA to jumpstart 2024 efforts backing the president.

“It is essential to remind voters of what’s at stake in 2024, and to do so online. Issues such as abortion access, protecting our climate, curbing gun control, making health care more affordable and making our economy work for every American will be the centerpieces of this campaign,” said Danielle Butterfield, the group’s executive director.

Founded in 2011, Priorities USA is among the Democratic Party’s largest political action committees. But it won’t be the only one supporting Biden, or the main one for that. Future Forward, which already has been running TV ads, will likely be Biden’s primary outside spending apparatus, though American Bridge and others are also expected to have a share in the campaign’s portfolio.

There was also some uncertainty about the role Biden-allied Building Back Together might play after the 2022 election. But instead of paid media campaigns, BBT will focus on coordinating among Democratic groups to highlight the Biden administration’s efforts to implement the president’s agenda.

Priorities’ ad, titled “Our Strength, Our Champion,” focuses on the Biden administration’s accomplishments and echoes the tone of Biden’s announcement video — with imagery of Jan. 6 and Biden’s leading GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another expected 2024 GOP candidate, make appearances as well. The ad will stream in English and Spanish.

The ad then runs through a list of Biden’s accomplishments, noting that he has “worked across the aisle,” “protected marriage equality,” “took historic climate action,” and “lowered health care costs.”

In the final seconds of the video, with Biden’s voice playing in the background, “Joe Biden is fighting with us. Let’s finish the job together” flashed across the screen.

In her first remarks since her running mate announced their reelection bid, Vice President Kamala Harris blasted the U.S. Supreme Court and Republican lawmakers who are restricting access to reproductive health care across the country in a speech at her alma mater, Howard University.

“These extremist so-called leaders would dare to tell us what is in our own best interest. Well I say, I trust the women of America. I trust the people of America,” Harris said to the crowd. “So don’t get in our way because if you do, we’re going to stand up, we’re going to organize and we’re going to speak up and we’re going to say we’re not having that, we’re not playing that!”

At one point Harris did something rarely seen from the vice president, grabbing the microphone and walking around the stage as she lambasted attacks on abortion. Aides say she had an outline on the podium but that the vast majority of the more than 20 minute speech was off the cuff.

“They’re also saying they’re going to ban abortion. Six weeks into a pregnancy? Well, clearly most of them don’t even know how a woman’s body works because most women don’t even know they’re pregnant at that stage of a pregnancy,” Harris said to a raucous applause.

For Harris, the event was a bit of a homecoming. The first vice president to hail from a historically Black college or university spoke to a packed auditorium of students and reproductive rights advocates on Howard’s campus in Washington, D.C., to multiple standing ovations and shouts of “H-U!” She responded: “You know!”

Attendees who’d seen Harris speak before say she felt like a different speaker Tuesday: That she was laid back in a way they hadn’t seen before and tied that to her being in the same auditorium that she had freshman orientation in.

“I feel like when she’s around Howard students, she feels at home. She feels comfortable around us because unlike the outside world, we don’t judge her,” freshman student Jomalee Smith said. “She is one of our heroes. When she’s here, she sees kids that look up to her. So, of course she’s going to be comfortable, be herself, walk around, crack jokes in the middle of a sentence.”

Alencia Johnson, a former Biden campaign senior adviser, said she hopes the administration (and campaign) takes Harris’ performance and the reception as proof positive they need to make sure they let her loose during the next 18 months.

“It’s clear abortion is a key issue for not just women, but young people and Black people of all ages given the packed auditorium with less than 2 days’ notice,” Johnson said. “And Vice President Harris is the perfect messenger in this moment in history. She was on fire. When they let her loose, especially on abortion, she connects with voters in a way many electeds can’t.”

The event also is an extension of Harris’ leading the administration’s push to protect reproductive access since POLITICO reported on the draft opinion that eventually became the 2022 Dobbs decision dismantling a federal right to abortion.

And administration aides say the choice to have the vice president speak about abortion to a group of young Black people at her alma mater was no accident. Though Harris had just one line about the reelection, (“I stand here, proud to run for reelection with President Joe Biden … so we can finish the job”), for the crowd, the impending fight was undergirding her appearance.

“What I saw was an experienced prosecutor who knows the case in front of her and capably prosecuted that case in front of this audience today,” EMILY’s List president Laphonza Butler said. “I’m excited about this reelection because that is the vice president that America is going to get a chance to get to know for the first time because she didn’t get to do it during the pandemic.”

In the first campaign video announcing his reelection campaign, Harris was featured largely throughout, a rarity for vice presidents and proof that the president will be leaning on his second-in-command during the campaign. It was also a not-so-veiled jab at the naysayers who doubt how close the two are and whether Biden sees her as an asset to his campaign.

Parts of Harris’ speech harkened to elements of the message Biden shared in that video about their reelection being about issues of freedom and democracy. Since the Dobbs decision, Harris has worked to tie the conversation of abortion access to a larger fight about privacy and the dismantling of democracy in the United States. On Tuesday, she said it was part of “an extremist plan to take this to a national agenda.”

“This agenda includes attacking your very right and freedom to express your voice through your vote at the ballot box,” she said. “Don’t think it’s not a national agenda when they start banning books to stand in the way of teaching America’s full history so the truth can be spoken. Standing for ideas that say that people cannot openly love the people they love — you know what’s happening with teachers down in Florida.”

After four whirlwind days in Ireland, President Joe Biden took questions from reporters beneath the wing of Air Force One on the tarmac at Ireland West Airport Knock and said he was excited to head home — specifically, to his place in Rehoboth Beach where he would spend the rest of the weekend.

Biden told the reporters he was going there because Secret Service agents were installing bulletproof windows at his primary Delaware residence in Wilmington. But there was another reason: he would be meeting top aides and a film crew in Rehoboth, as the Washington Post was first to report, to record parts of the video he released Tuesday officially launching his reelection campaign.

In the days that followed, suspense continued to build about Biden’s decision and the timing of his announcement. But there shouldn’t have been — because once Biden’s team hired the film crew, he was boxed in, required by federal law to announce his candidacy within 15 days, even though some of his aides didn’t realize that at the time.

According to two people familiar with events, some aides involved with the run-up to Tuesday’s launch sought legal guidance after the video segments were recorded and were reminded about what’s known as “the 15-day trigger,” the requirement that campaigns file paperwork within 15 days of spending $5,000 on campaign-related expenditures.

“I assume that the campaign spent more than $5,000 to produce [the announcement video],” said Erin Chlopak, the senior director for campaign finance at the Campaign Legal Center. “Under federal regulations, once a candidate spends that, they are required to file their official statement of candidacy within 15 days.”

As late as last week, the people said, legal guidance was still being sought as to whether an announcement was required within that timeframe as a result of the video. According to people familiar with the deliberations, the legal requirement to file paperwork triggered by making the launch video was ultimately not part of the calculation to make the reelection bid official. The decision to flip the switch had already been made. Hence, hiring the video crew.

“There was no ambiguity among the senior team about what happens once you enter the 15-day window,” one Democratic strategist close to the process said, disputing that those involved in deciding to go ahead with the video production had failed to realize the implications.

Still, up until this week’s launch, there was robust debate among Democratic operatives close to top Biden aides about whether it made sense to announce in April. Biden himself, known for taking his time with weighty decisions, has long seemed inclined to seek a second term. But he hesitated about the timing of when. Some people close to the campaign speculated that those pushing for an earlier launch were trying to box him into announcing in April. One thing they had in their favor was Biden’s sense of nostalgia and superstition. Tuesday’s announcement came on the four-year anniversary of his last campaign launch.

But the announcement still left little time for sorting out more of the campaign structure, from lining up surrogates to launching a robust email program. Nor did the launch come with the usual pomp and circumstance that usually accompanies making the first step in a bid for the White House. Biden spoke before a gathering of union workers and did not mention the election run he’d just embarked on. There was only a spattering of fundraising solicitations sent around — a level that, one Democratic digital operative suggested, would have been more robust had the president’s digital team had a bit more prep time. There was no rally (though, Barack Obama similarly held off on doing a campaign event until weeks after making his 2012 bid known via a video).

The just-launched campaign declined a request for comment. Still, as the campaign gets going, top aides may want to keep the lawyers on speed dial.