During a recent press briefing (the press briefing on November 13th), White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre a major hint about whether the Democrats would take action to “codify Roe v. Wade” and protect “marriage equality,” meaning using the federal government to enforce gay marriage and abortion laws of the sort favored by the left.
That came when a reporter asked what the Democrats would be doing on those topics and others, asking KJP:
The President, this morning, got the question about whether he would tr- — you know, now that Democrats are going to hold the Senate, the next Congress, trying to codify Roe; codify voting rights; make voting — sorry, voting rights reforms — something that he talked a lot about on the campaign if Democrats hold Congress, he would try to get done.
So, he didn’t really make that pledge directly today. So, can you speak a little bit about what it would take for the President to actually deliver on some of those promises he made to voters during the campaign about codifying Roe, about —
Responding, KJP hinted that the Democrats might in fact be doing just that, saying that while she didn’t want to get too far ahead of his work with the House and Senate, Biden is looking at taking action on those subjects. In her words:
So, certainly, what — the Democrats holding on to the Senate is welcome news. You heard directly, as you stated, Zeke, from the President this morning. And, you know, he’s been very clear he’s willing to work with — with Republicans. He has been. This is something that we know the President has done as part of his record with being able to, you know, work with Republicans in a bipartisan way. We’ve seen that over the past 20 months of his presidency in particular.
But, you know, look, his — his vision is to — his goal is to deliver for the American people. He’s going to do that, and he’s going to continue to do that, along with the Senate — Senate Democrats. But certainly, it will make it — the task easier — right? — to get some of his agenda done now that — now that we know that we have — we’ll have the majority back in the Senate.
I don’t have any details or anything to lay out. But the President has always been very clear he’s going to continue to do the work on behalf of the American people.
I have talked about a list of items that he’s — he wants to continue to do. And so, making sure that the government stays open — right? — making sure that we protect Medicare and Social Security. And so there’s a list of issues — marriage equality, as I’ve talked about yesterday. And also, as you just talked about, making sure we protect a woman’s right to choose, which is codifying Roe. So, all of these things remain to — remain a priority for this President.
Again, I don’t want to get ahead of what his agenda may look like because he is going to have conversations with leaders in the Senate and also in the House, so I don’t want to get too far ahead of them.
