State Dept. condemns arrests, repression in Russia

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration is committed to bipartisan solutions on passing a coronavirus relief package, but would not say whether the president supports efforts to get rid of the Senate filibuster.

"(Biden) was involved even before yesterday, having conversations with members of both parties. Picking up the phone and having those conversations. He saw, of course, members of both parties. He invited leaders from both parties to join him at church. Obviously, that wasn't really a discussion about specifics of the bill, but they did -- he did have an opportunity to talk about his agenda and working -- working together on his agenda moving forward," Psaki said in response to a question from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce.

"But I think you will see him quite involved in the days ahead. But you will also see the vice president quite involved. You will also see policy leaders, like Brian Deese and others in the administration quite involved in having conversations with both Democrats and Republicans," she added.

Despite being pressed by reporters on whether the president would support Senate Democrats removing the filibuster in an attempt to pass additional legislation if Republicans refused to back the administration's efforts, Psaki refused to say.

"The president has been clear he wants to work with members of both parties and find bipartisan paths forward. And I don't have any more conversations to read out for you at this point in time," Psaki said.

Dr. Fauci discussed the ongoing vaccine rollout, saying that if 70-85% of the country receives vaccines by middle of this summer then by fall "we will be approaching a degree of normality."

Fauci said the vaccine rollout is not "starting from scratch," saying that the new administration is taking the vaccine activity to date and "amplifying it in a big way." Fauci also said that Biden's ambitious vaccination goal is reasonable.

"I believe that the goal that was set by the president of getting 100 million people vaccinated in the first 100 days is quite a reasonable goal," Dr. Fauci said.

In a Thursday press conference addressing the Biden administration's response to COVID-19, the president's chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said there were aspects of former President Donald Trump's response to the pandemic that were "not based on scientific fact."

"I don't want to be going back, you know, over history, but it is very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that that was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact," Fauci told reporters.

"I can tell you, I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president. So it was really something that you didn't feel that you could actually say something and there wouldn't be any repercussions about it. The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence -- what the science is, and know that's it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling," he added.

Fauci is one of the few holdovers in the Biden administration from former President Donald Trump's Coronavirus Task Force. When asked how the new government would be different from the last, Fauci pledged that it would be transparent.

"One of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago when I was with the president, is that one of the things that we're going to do is be completely transparent, open and honest," Fauci said.

"If things go wrong, not point fingers, but to correct them, and to make everything we do be based on science and evidence. I mean, that was literally a conversation I had with the 15 minutes ago with the president. And he has said that multiple times."

The nation's top expert on infectious diseases and Biden's chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci offered a glimmer of hope at a White House press briefing on Thursday, saying that despite "a very, very high rate" of new infections, he thinks that cases may be hitting a plateau.

"Right now, it looks like it might actually be plateauing in the sense of turning around," Fauci said. "Now, there's good news in that, but you have to be careful that we may not be seeing perhaps an artifact of a slowing down following the holidays."

Fauci also said he felt like he had "deja vu," as around this time last year he was talking about the acceleration of cases in late winter into early spring.

Fauci's presence at the White House marks a return from a months-long absence, after Trump soured on Fauci for not hewing to Trump's false claims about the pandemic, including frequent repetitions that the virus would simply "go away."