What Joe Biden said in his first presidential press conference

US President Joe Biden holds the first formal news conference of his presidency at the White House. Biden faced criticism for not holding a news conference during the first 50 days of his term, though he has spoken to reporters multiple times since he took office on January 20 Reporters raised questions about pressing issues such as the migrant surge at the US-Mexico border, gun control, relations with China and Russia, and withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Welcome to Al Jazeera’s coverage of President Joe Biden’s first formal news conference. This is William Roberts, Steve Chaggaris and Creede Newton. The president said he has a good relationship with his Chinese counterpart XI Jinping, with whom Biden had a two-hour initial telephone conversation that surprised China watchers. “He is one of the guys like [Vladimir] Putin who thinks that autocracy is the wave of the future, democracy can’t function in an ever more complex world,” Biden said.