President Joe Biden took questions on a plethora of issues, including the coronavirus pandemic, vaccine rollout, school reopenings, economic reboot and the minimum wage at CNN's town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 17 February – his first such event since his January inauguration as POTUS.
As Biden made use of the opportunity to pitch his COVID-19 relief plan to the nation, he tentatively pointed to "next Christmas" as a possible time where the nation could be under a "very different circumstance". He vowed that "by the end of July, we'll have over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American."
Joe Biden also said during the town hall event that all of the living former presidents have called him, "except one".
"They're private conversations… But, by the way, all of them, with one exception, picked up the phone and called me as well," said Biden, who avoided mentioning his predecessor by name.
When asked outright about the Senate's acquittal of Trump, Biden replied:
“Look, for four years, all that’s been in the news is Trump. The next four years I want to make sure all the news is the American people… I'm tired of talking about Trump. It’s done.”
Biden added that any decision to prosecute the former president for anything he did while in office will be left up to the Department of Justice.
Donald Trump was acquitted in his second impeachment trial on 13 February, with lawmakers seeking to oust him failing to reach the necessary two-thirds supermajority.
The second impeachment was launched just days after the ex-president's supporters stormed Capitol Hill in a bid to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Netizens were split in their reaction to Joe Biden’s words. Some tended to agree that it was time to ‘turn the page’ on Trump.
Some comments on social media, however, pointed out that Donald Trump would be a ‘talking point’ for a long time yet.