Live updates: President Biden visits Fort Worth VA, Resource Connection; $5 gas in Texas?
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President’ Biden’s visit to Fort Worth
Presient Joe Biden visited Fort Worth on Tuesday to promote health care for veterans.
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Live updates: President Biden visits Fort Worth VA, Resource Connection; $5 gas in Texas?
President Joe Biden calls care for veterans a ‘sacred obligation’ in Fort Worth visit
Family of Texas Marine veteran in Russian prison speaks with President Biden on phone
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Welcome to Fort Worth, Mr. President. Now, can we talk about these insane gas prices?
‘We owe you’: Biden says he’ll make it easier for vets to get the care they deserve
President Joe Biden said it was a “sacred obligation” to care for soldiers when they come home as he formally announced his “unity agenda” Tuesday in Fort Worth.
Biden, speaking at the Resource Connection of Tarrant County after a visit to the Fort Worth VA Clinic, said veterans should be getting what they deserve when it comes to benefits.
The House passed a law last week expanding toxic exposure coverage to veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and certain areas during the Vietnam War. The legislation must also be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the president. All of the state’s Democrats voted for the bill that did not get a single vote from the state’s Republicans.
Lawmakers have separately sought to make it easier for veterans who served in areas that had burn pits to get health care and other benefits. The push has the support of Texas Republicans John Cornyn, Ted Cruz and Michael Burgess.
Biden asked Congress to get the bills to his desk so he can sign them immediately. He said they have bipartisan support and unite the American people.
He said the 9/11 generation was the Greatest Generation because of how much was asked of them when it comes to multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Texas could see $5 gasoline prices
Biden announced before traveling to Fort Worth that the U.S. would ban Russian crude oil imports. Experts say that news won’t singularly cause U.S. gas prices to rise further — we get only about 1.5% of our crude from Russia. But if other nations follow our lead, we’re in for more pain at the pump.
“I’m afraid we may be in for a gasoline price in Texas that is higher than than any of us have ever seen before,” said Karr Ingham, a petroleum economist with the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.
Texans could see $5 per gallon prices, well above the historical record here of just under $4 in 2008.
On the bright side, surging prices should be a boon for the Texas economy. And Texan oil and gas could help mitigate global supply concerns.
Read more here.
President sees technology used to help veterans
President Joe Biden arrived at the VA Clinic in Fort Worth a little after 3 p.m. where technology used to help veterans was demonstrated to the president. This included an exoskeleton device that assisted a veteran to walk. He also saw a power wheelchair in use.
Biden spoke with veterans before departing to head to the Resource Connection of Tarrant County.
Biden arrives 30 minutes behind schedule
President Joe Biden arrived at Naval Air Station Fort Worth on Tuesday. He is expected to travel to the Fort Worth VA Clinic and Resource Connection of Tarrant County to discusses veterans health care.
Biden’s plane landed about 30 minutes behind schedule Tuesday afternoon, with Air Force One’s wheels finally hitting the ground in Cowtown at around 2:15.
He was the first official off the plane and trotted down a set of white air stairs to first greet Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley before meeting other officials and quickly climbing in a black presidential state car to jet off to the rest of his trip.
He did not approach a nearby press pool for questions.
City Manager David Cooke along with several members of the Fort Worth City Council are attending Biden’s remarks at the Tarrant County Resource Connection.
District 9 council member Elizabeth Beck, who served in Iraq as an Army reservist, is slated to introduce the president. She will speak about her experience with exposure to burn pits during her military career.
Biden expected to talk about burn pits
President Joe Biden is in Fort Worth on Tuesday to discuss veterans issues.
Air Force One is expected to arrive at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth around 1:45 p.m. From there, he will go to the Fort Worth VA Clinic before delivering a speech at the Tarrant County Resource Connection, where he is expected to talk about burn pits and veterans’ exposure to other toxic substances. The speech is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
Biden’s son Beau was an Iraq war veteran. He died of brain cancer in 2015.
In announcing the president’s visit to Fort Worth, the White House made reference to the family tragedy, saying that Biden knows “firsthand the challenges that come from military service and deployment to combat zones.”
Biden in his State of the Union speech earlier this month suggested that toxic exposure led to Beau’s illness and death.
“I don’t know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near, that his hooch was near in Iraq and earlier than that in Kosovo, is the cause of his brain cancer and the disease of so many of our troops,” Biden said. “But I’m committed to find out everything we can.”
In addition to improved care for the nation’s veterans, Biden’s unity agenda includes ending the opioid epidemic, eradicating cancer and emphasizes mental health care, particularly for children.
Demonstrators gather outside VA clinic
Protester Jennifer Reed, 35, of White Settlement, said that Biden had in August recklessly withdrawn U.S. armed forces from Afghanistan.
“I don’t think he cares about our military the way he says he does,” Reed said outside the clinic.
Before Biden arrived, about 30 demonstrators gathered at the edge of the clinic property with the expectation that the president’s motorcade would pass on a service road. When it became clear that Biden would enter via another entrance to the west, the protesters walked there. Fort Worth police announced via bullhorn that the group would need to return to its original location or it would be subject to arrest. The demonstrators slowly left the area as police directed.
About 15 people outside the clinic protested the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Texas Republicans: Biden ignoring border
Texas Republicans criticized Biden’s visit, saying he has been ignoring the border.
“With one of the highest election turnouts for Republicans in state history last week, it’s odd that Joe Biden would want to show his face in Texas,” Matt Rinaldi, the Republican Part of Texas Chairman, said in a statement. “By coming to Forth Worth, it’s clear he is continuing to ignore the border invasion, a crisis he created, and he’s ignoring Democrats in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas who are fleeing the party in droves.”
Family of Trevor Reed speaks with Biden
On Monday, Marine veteran Trevor Reed’s family spoke with him for the first time in over 200 days.
Reed, a Fort Worth native who is imprisoned in Russia, sounded tired and hopeless, his sister and parents said Tuesday as they waited outside the Tarrant County Resource Connection building in hopes of getting the attention of President Joe Biden.
During the president’s visit to North Texas to speak about issues affecting veterans, the family wanted to urge Biden to consider trading Russian prisoners in the U.S. for the release of Trevor Reed and other Americans.
Biden said he couldn’t stop because of his Secret Service security team, but he called the family and could be heard over the phone saying he feels for them and “can’t imagine what you’re going through.” The White House also told the family that although Biden wouldn’t be able to meet with them Tuesday, they would schedule a meeting in the future, said Trevor’s mother, Paula Reed.
As the president’s motorcade passed by Tuesday afternoon, Biden nodded and pointed at Paula Reed, she said.
“They drove by faster than I thought he would. But Biden gave me a nod and pointed at me, so he acknowledged us, and I feel great,” Paula Reed said.
“I feel he saw me, so that made it worth it, standing in the cold,” she said. “We wanted to get his attention, and I think we did that.”
During the Obama administration, Trevor Reed served as a Maine security guard at Camp David.
“Our son would have given his life for you and they (the Russians) want to trade. … If that’s what they want, you need to do that before our son dies of tuberculosis,” Trevor’s father, Joey Reed, said. “He was willing to die for you. The least you could do is trade a drug dealer who’s already been here for 10 years and is going to be home and out before Trevor. That’s a few things I would tell Biden.”
— Jessika Harkay
Biden is late getting out of Washington, D.C.
Air Force One departed for Fort Worth around 11:20 a.m.
Biden had been scheduled to leave Washington D.C. around 10:35 a.m., but is running late after remarks on Russia were added to his schedule this morning, according to a pool report. Fort Worth Democrat Rep. Marc Veasey is traveling with Biden, as is Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas Democrat, and Rep. Jake Ellzey, a Waxahachie Republican.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office has not returned requests for comment on Biden’s visit, including whether Abbott plans to meet with the president.
-Eleanor Dearman
Biden to promote ‘unity agenda’
Biden will formally launch his “unity agenda” on Tuesday in Texas, a state that he lost handily in the election, during a visit to Fort Worth that’s meant to galvanize support for federal efforts to help service members exposed to toxic substances.
The House passed a law last week expanding toxic exposure coverage to veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and certain areas during the Vietnam War. The legislation must also be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the president. All of the state’s Democrats voted for the bill that did not get a single vote from the state’s Republicans.
Lawmakers have separately sought to make it easier for veterans who served in areas that had burn pits to get health care and other benefits. The push has the support of Texas Republicans John Cornyn, Ted Cruz and Michael Burgess.
Although he lost the state of Texas by roughly five percentage points and 600,000 votes, Biden had a narrow victory in Tarrant County. He edged out Trump in the area by fewer than 2,000 votes.
Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough is accompanying Biden to Texas, where they will visit with nurses and doctors at the Fort Worth VA Clinic and receive a briefing from veterans and advocates.
-Francesca Chambers, McClatchy DC
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn calls on Biden to meet with family of Trevor Reed
Ahead of his visit on Tuesday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn called on Biden to meet with the family of Trevor Reed, a Texas Marine who is being held in a Russian prison. His family lives in Granbury and has requested a meeting, but a visit with the family was not included in an itinerary from the White House.
“Trevor Reed has been held in a Russian prison with little to no access to badly-needed health care or communication with his family, and his situation is only going to get worse given the political climate in Russia,” Cornyn said in a statement. “This Administration must do more to free Americans held hostage in Russia. President Biden meeting with the Reed family while in Texas on a day he is touting the importance of caring for our veterans would be a welcome start.”
-Eleanor Dearman
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 10:46 AM.
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