What a difference a year makes. President Biden swept into office with big plans and a pledge to heal the deep divisions in U.S. politics and society. Early successes in passing a bipartisan bill for COVID relief and infrastructure spending on a scale not seen in decades led to comparisons to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal that helped lift the U.S. out of the Great Depression.

But a surge in COVID cases and deaths – and an inability to unite his own party in the face of united opposition from Republicans – led to legislative gridlock in Congress on everything to tackling climate change, social welfare spending and protecting voting rights. Defending his record, however, Biden used a near two-hour press conference to say he will engage with the U.S. public more in his second year.

CGTN's Nathan King reports.

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