Biden sells Americans on economic agenda, pleads for gun reform during Triangle visit

In his visit to Research Triangle Park on Tuesday, President Joe Biden highlighted his administration’s economic agenda and pleaded for action on gun violence in the wake of a mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

His tour of the Durham semiconductor chip manufacturer Wolfspeed was the inaugural stop of the Biden administration’s three-week “Investing in America” tour.

“Right here in America, here in North Carolina, we’re making chips that go into electric vehicles,” Biden said during his speech at Wolfspeed. “These vehicles are powered by batteries and critical minerals that we’re making here in North Carolina. We’re making electric vehicles here in North Carolina. That’s what invest means.”

Air Force One touched down at Raleigh-Durham International Airport shortly after 1 p.m. A motorcade then shuttled the president to Wolfspeed’s campus.

Before making his remarks, Biden toured the company’s Power Applications Lab, viewing and handling semiconductor materials and meeting employees. He then walked outside to greet a row of IBEW union workers at the facility.

Wolfspeed is the world leader in the production of a particular semiconducting material called silicon carbide. As Biden visited, the company’s executives stressed the importance of supporting chip manufacturing domestically.

“If we’re dependent on Asia for chips, we’re going to be in trouble,” John Edmond, Wolfspeed co-founder, said in an interview with The News & Observer. “You can have supply chain issues, (as seen) in this 100-year pandemic that just occurred. We’ve always manufactured in the U.S.”

Selling Americans on economic agenda

The visit attracted some high-profile North Carolina Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal, and U.S. Reps. Valerie Foushee and Wiley Nickel.

Before Biden stepped to the podium after his tour, the public officials made comments to the invited crowd.

O’Neal applauded the partnership between Wolfspeed and Durham Technical Community College to prepare future workers.

“For more than 20 years, the two have worked together to develop customized training that increases the number of technicians and advances the career opportunities of our residents,” she said.

In 2020, Durham Tech teamed with Wolfspeed to design a customized training program.

Cooper praised Biden for the major economic legislation the president and Congress have passed since the president took office, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act.

“The President has delivered,” Cooper said before listing his legislative accomplishments. “He has done more in two years, than many presidents would have aspired to do in eight.”

Ahead of the president’s visit, North Carolina Republican critics pushed back on the Biden administration’s narrative of economic success.

On Tuesday, the North Carolina Republican Party tweeted: “Dems struggle to sell an ‘America First’ policy as if it’s an original idea, while NC families struggle under the reality of Democrats’ hyper-spending, Big Government policies — inflated prices and diminished hopes.”

In February, an ABC News-Washington Post poll found more than six in 10 Americans reported not feeling the impact of the Biden administration’s economic agenda.

Biden pleads for gun reform after Nashville school attack

A shooter at a private Christian grade school on Monday killed 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney and three adults, Cynthia Peak, Katherine Koonce and Mike Hill, news outlets including ABC News reported.

Biden was asked before his departure from the White House on Tuesday if he plans to take any action on gun violence.

“I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns,” the Democratic president said, according to a White House transcript.

At Wolfspeed, Biden again addressed the Nashville shootings and called for Congress to reinstate a ban on semiautomatic guns classified as assault weapons.

“We owe these families more than our prayers,” he said, before adding, “why in God’s name do we allow these weapons of war on our streets and in our schools?”

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.