乔·拜登总统在海外之行的最后几个小时举行了一次新闻发布会，宣传美国的气候政策和他所说的在第26届缔约方大会上取得的“重大进展”，但他也被迫回应民主党在国内气候变化政策和社会议程上的内讧。

“总统先生，你在这次访问中兜售包括气候变化在内的1.7万亿美元计划，但你的政党仍然没有团结一致支持它，”一名记者说，这引发了进步人士与弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)就社会支出一揽子计划展开斗争。民主党人寻求通过一个“和解进程”，该进程需要民主党参议院的每一次投票，但可能会避免共和党的阻挠。“今天，他说他从未在框架上签字。那么，你有没有得到曼钦参议员的具体承诺，支持你的“重建得更好”法案——是或不是——你如何回应这些批评?”

拜登回答说:“第一，我不会谈论我谈话的细节。“他将投票赞成——在这项提案中，他已经预料到了，那就是从实际立法倡议的角度来看，众议院将会产生的细节。我相信乔会在那里。”

尽管没有明确的迹象表明参议院已经通过的两党基础设施法案将很快在众议院获得通过，但进步人士表示，他们相信拜登会兑现他在更大的社会支出和气候法案上承诺的51张参议院选票，拜登预测曼钦会支持这一点，尽管他表达了新的担忧，即这将花费比声称的要多得多。

拜登说:“关于他是否认为他担心这是通货膨胀或对经济的负面影响的问题，我认为我已经向乔说得很清楚了，并将继续这样做。“17位诺贝尔经济学奖得主表示，这将降低通胀、提高工资、增加竞争，并在一年内创造200万个工作岗位，等等。”

埃文·武奇/美联社

乔·拜登总统在第26届联合国气候变化大会的新闻发布会上听取了一个问题.

尽管曼钦当天早些时候在国会山告诉美国广播公司新闻国会记者雷切尔·斯科特，他没有在框架宣布之前给总统一个签名，但拜登似乎对他的回应提出了质疑，称他理解曼钦希望检查议程中的任何变化，“他承认他会同意的。”

拜登在苏格兰表示:“因此，我认为乔正在寻找准确的细节，以确保没有任何东西被遗漏——就立法是如何起草的而言，这与他承认他会同意的不同，但我认为我们会做到这一点。”。

当被问及弗吉尼亚州的选举日时，他用了同样的语气——在那里，州长竞选被认为是前总统唐纳德·特朗普影响力的试金石，而民主党的议程却停滞不前。

当被问及民主党的失败是否意味着该党在中期选举中真正的失败时，拜登说，“我们会赢的。”

“比赛非常接近。这是关于谁出现了，谁出现了，承认吧，我确实以很大的优势赢了，但问题的关键是，我认为，这将是我们从一开始就知道的。这将是一场势均力敌的比赛，”他承认。“我认为我们也将赢得新泽西，”他在谈到那里的州长竞选时说。

总统拒绝接受这样一种观点，即种族如此是他自己工作表现的反映。

“休赛期总是不可预测的，尤其是当我们没有同时进行大选的时候，”他补充道。“但话虽如此，我不相信，我也没有看到任何证据表明，我做得好或不好，我的议程是否通过，会对输赢产生任何真正的影响。即使我们通过了我的议程，我也不会声称我们赢了，因为拜登的议程通过了，”拜登说。

总统预测，如果选民人数众多，民主党将赢得弗吉尼亚州和新泽西州的州长职位。

“对我来说，预测是非常困难的，无论如何，我不喜欢从海外担任总统，但我认为——我希望弗吉尼亚州和新泽西州的每一个合格选民都出现并投票，他们越多，我认为我们的机会就越大。我认为我们会——我认为我们会赢，”他说。

在新闻发布会结束时，拜登被问及峰会外抗议者的愤怒和怀疑，他们担心美国在应对气候危机方面做得不够，即使做出了历史性承诺。

“嗯，首先，我认为任何关注环境的人都应该担心。除了我们已经做的，我们还有很多事情要做，”拜登开始说道。“他们关注的是从处理森林砍伐到我们将如何更好地重建家园，以及我们现在如何能够集中精力，实际上发生了什么，”他说，尽管总统没有谈到他一直在努力让自己的政党成员加入他最初的气候提案。

“人们担心是有原因的。我很担心。我担心，如果我们不继续向前迈进，不取得我们现在正在取得的进展，这将——我的意思是，我们将使我们能够将气温上升保持在1.5摄氏度以上的前景岌岌可危，”拜登说，并阐述了未能兑现雄心勃勃的承诺的风险。

他说，尽管有自己的担忧，但总统表示，他“乐观”地认为，从气候变化的角度来看，世界正在达到一个临界点，他指出，随着全国人民看到气候变化的影响在自己的后院显现，这一前景甚至与上一次第25届缔约方大会气候峰会上的情况大相径庭。

“情况正在发生变化。我们只是——作为世界领导人，我们必须有正确的管理和足够的判断力来做好这件事，”拜登补充道。

在回答问题前的简短讲话中，拜登吹捧美国在减少甲烷排放和毁林等举措方面处于领先地位。

他说，投资清洁能源的未来将需要全社会的努力，这既是经济上的，也是“道德上的必要”。

当天早些时候，总统强调了新技术的创新和现有技术的采用，以激励应对气候变化的斗争。在白宫宣布了一项新的甲烷减排计划后，他谈到了森林砍伐和美国将如何实现碳排放目标，他说，100多个国家也签署了这项计划。

Biden predicts Manchin, despite complaints, will support his domestic agenda

President Joe Biden's spent his last hours on his overseas trip holding a news conference to tout U.S. climate policies and what he called "significant progress" made at the COP26 summit -- but he was also forced to respond to Democratic infighting over his climate change policies and social agenda at home.

"Mister President, you're touting on this visit the $1.7 trillion plan that includes climate but your party is still not united behind it," a reporter said, raising progressives battling with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., over the social spending package Democrats seek to pass through a "reconciliation process" that would need every Democratic Senate vote but could avoid a Republican filibuster. "Today, he said he never signed off on the framework. So, do you have a specific commitment from Senator Manchin to support your Build Back Better bill -- yes or no -- and how do you respond to those criticisms?"

"Number one, I'm not going to talk about the specifics of my conversations," Biden replied. "He will vote for -- in this proposal what he has anticipated and that is looking at the fine print and the detail of what comes out of the house in terms of the actual legislative initiative. I believe that Joe will be there."

Although there's no definite sign the already Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill will pass the House soon, progressives say they trust Biden to deliver 51 Senate votes he promised on the larger social spending and climate bill, and Biden predicted Manchin would support that, despite expressing new concerns that it would cost a lot more than claimed.

"With regard to the issue of whether or not he thinks that he's worried about this being inflationary or negative impact on the economy, I think that I made it clear to Joe and will continue to," Biden said. "Seventeen Nobel laureates on economics said it's going to lower inflation and raise wages and increase competition and create two million jobs in a year, et cetera."

While Manchin told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott earlier in the day on Capitol Hill that he did not give the president a sign off on the framework before it was announced, Biden seemed to throw that into question with his response, saying he understood that Manchin wanted to check the fine print for any changes from the agenda "he acknowledged he would agree to."

"And so I think that Joe is looking for the precise detail to make sure nothing got slipped in -- in terms of how the legislation got written that is different than he acknowledged he would agree to, but I think we'll get this done," Biden said from Scotland.

He took the same tone when asked about Election day in Virginia -- where the race for governor is being considered a litmus test for former President Donald Trump's influence while Democrats' agenda is stalled.

Asked if a Democratic loss could signal real losses for the party in the midterms, Biden said, "We're going to win."

"The race is very close. It's about who shows up, who turns out, and grant it, I did win by a large margin, but the point of the matter is that, I think, this is going to be what we all knew from the beginning. This is going to be a tight race," he acknowledged. "I think we're going to win New Jersey as well," he said of the gubernatorial race there as well.

The president rejected the concept that the race being so is a reflection of his own job performance.

"The off-year is always unpredictable, especially when we don't have a general election going on at the same time," he added. "But having said that, I don't believe, and I've not seen any evidence that whether or not I am doing well or poorly, whether or not I've got my agenda passed or not is going to have any real impact on winning or losing. Even if we had passed my agenda, I wouldn't claim we won because Biden's agenda passed," Biden said.

If voters turn out in big numbers, the president predicted, Democrats will win the governorships in both Virginia and New Jersey.

"It's awful hard for me to be prognosticating, which I don't like doing as president anyway from overseas, but I think -- I hope that every eligible voter in Virginia and New Jersey shows up and votes and the more of them that do, the better off I think our chances are. I think we're going to -- I think we're going to win," he said.

Ending his news conference, Biden was asked about the anger and skepticism of protestors outside the summit, who worry that the U.S. is not doing enough to address the climate crisis, even with his historic pledges.

"Well, first of all, I think anyone who is focused on the environment should be worried. We've got a lot more to do beyond what we've done," Biden began. "What they're looking at is what in fact has happened in terms of everything from dealing with deforestation to what we're going to do on build back better and how we've been able to focus now," he said, though the president did not address the fact that he has struggled to get members of his own party on board with his initial climate proposals.

"There's a reason for people to be worried. I'm worried. I'm worried if we don't continue to move forward and make the kind of progress we're now making that it's going to -- I mean, we throw into jeopardy the prospect that we're going to be able to keep the temperature rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius," Biden said, laying out the stakes of failing to deliver on the ambitious pledges.

Despite his own worries, the president said he is "optimistic" that the world is hitting a tipping point in the view of climate change, citing a very different outlook than even existed at the previous COP25 climate summit as people across the country see the impacts of climate change play out in their own backyards, he said.

"Things are changing. We just -- have to have the right stewardship and enough sense as world leaders to get it right," Biden added.

In brief remarks ahead of taking questions, Biden touted the U.S. as leading the way with initiatives such as reducing methane emissions and deforestation.

He said investing in a clean energy future will take a whole society effort and is both an economic and "moral imperative."

Earlier in the day, the president emphasized innovation of new technologies, and the adoption of existing ones, to galvanize the fight against climate change. He talked about deforestation and how the U.S. will meet carbon emission goals after the White House announced a new plan for methane reduction which he said more than 100 countries have signed, too.