Biden touts internet work in N.C.
Election-year pitch focuses on economy
RALEIGH, N.C. — President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled $82 million for North Carolina to help connect 16,000 new households and businesses to high-speed internet, delivering an election-year pitch about policies he says are “just getting started” at improving the United States.
Biden said the work his administration is doing in North Carolina, on high-speed internet, infrastructure and more, is happening in communities across the country, regardless of the politics.
“What we’re doing here in North Carolina is one piece of a much bigger story,” he said. Biden said he was keeping his promise “to be a president for all America, whether you voted for me or not.”
Biden talked about all the people who need high-speed internet because they work from home, businesses who need it to reach customers and students who need to do their school work.
“High-speed internet isn’t a luxury anymore. It’s an absolute necessity,” he said in Raleigh, the state capital. “The investment in high-speed internet means something else as well: good-paying jobs.”
Polling shows that the economy has been a weakness for Biden, a reflection of inflation hitting a four-decade high in June 2022. Easing inflation rates since then have yet to pull Biden’s approval ratings back to their levels at the start of his presidency.
The president has stressed that his policies are fostering the creation of factory and construction jobs with middle-class wages.
“When jobs grow, everything grows,” Biden said.
The president later picked up a burger, fries and shake from Cook Out and held what his campaign described as a “kitchen table conversation” at the home of a family that benefited from the administration’s student loan forgiveness programs.