US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he was in a “stronger” position to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping after Democrats retained control of the upper house of the US parliament.
“I feel good and I look forward to the next two years,” Biden said in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, where the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit ends today.
“I know I’m getting stronger,” Biden, who will meet Xi on Monday on the Indonesian island of Bali, told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
“I know Xi Jinping, he knows me,” Biden added, saying they always had “frank discussions.” The current US president was vice president in 2012, when Xi was elected to lead the Chinese Communist Party.
“We have very few disagreements. We just need to determine what the red lines are,” Biden said.
The leaders of the world’s two largest economies have spoken on the phone numerous times since Biden took office in January 2021.
But the Covid-19 pandemic and Xi’s aversion to traveling abroad have prevented the two leaders from meeting in person.
The Democratic Party will maintain control of the House of Representatives, after Catherine Cortez Masto obtained the last seat in the Senate representing the state of Arizona (southwest).
Tuesday’s midterm elections were a lesson for Republicans, who must now decide “who they are,” Joe Biden said, referring to the influence of former President Donald Trump, who continues to claim there was voter fraud in 2020, without evidence. some.
According to projections by the Associated Press (AP) agency, Cortez Masto obtained enough votes to guarantee victory over the Republican candidate Adam Laxalt, supported by Trump.
Confirmed the victory of Cortez Masto, the Democrats obtain 50 seats in the Senate, one more than the Republicans, in a total of 100 disputed seats.
Even if the Republicans win the last ‘available’ seat, which is contested in the state of Georgia, they will only win a tie at 50 seats in the Senate. In this situation, something that is currently happening in the upper house of Congress, Vice President Kamala Harris (Democrat) gets the tie-breaking vote.
With control of the Senate, Democrats ensure a smoother process for executive appointments and the selection of judges, including potential Supreme Court seats, in the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term.
The Senate can still reject any legislation passed by the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, where Republicans can still win a majority.
Source: TSF
