Biden's first 100 days: shots, checks, dogs

Biden's first 100 days: shots, checks, dogs

U.S. President Joe Biden made sweeping promises on the campaign trail.

Here's what he managed to accomplish - and where he stumbled - in his first 100 days.

This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

U.S. President Joe Biden marks 100 days in office on Friday.

Historians say the tradition of judging an American president's first 100 days goes back to 1933, when another Democratic President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, embarked on a rapid-fire rollout of rescue measures to counter the Great Depression.

Biden came into office with a raft of promises to quickly tackle everything from the health crisis to the economy, and immigration.

Here's how he's fared so far.

BIDEN: "One hundred million shots, in the first hundred days." Biden's major COVID-19 promise was 100 million shots in Americans' arms in his first 100 days in office.

He left that number in the dust.

Some 290 million shots have been distributed, more than 230 million administered, and about 96 million Americans are fully vaccinated.

The vaccines, raced to development and proven effective under the previous president, saw a surge in distribution as Biden directed the government to open mass vaccination sites and deploy shots across the country.

BIDEN: "Just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country.

That changed the moment we took office." Over 3,000 people were dying per day when Biden took office.

Now that figure is under 700 a day.

BIDEN: "By tomorrow we will have distributed 100 million of those checks." On the economy, Biden pressed Congress to pass a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill to limit fallout from the health crisis.

The American Rescue Plan, passed over Republican opposition, delivered on the key economic promise Biden made on the campaign trail: checks for Americans.

Economic growth is expected to top 7% this year, the fastest since 1984.

Nearly one million jobs were added in March.

The improvement is expected to continue as normal commerce resumes.

BIDEN: "we're going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families, their mothers and fathers at the border." Immigration has proven thornier, as Biden tried to unwind hardline policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

The Democrat has struggled to deal with a sharp rise in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In recent months, unaccompanied children have been backed up in crowded border stations, even as the Biden administration has raced to open thousands of emergency shelter beds.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found Biden enjoys an overall approval rating of 55 percent in his first hundred days, a level Trump never saw in four years.

Biden gets his highest marks on tackling the pandemic, but his lowest ratings on immigration.

On a furrier front, the President and First Lady brought their two German Shepherds to the White House, and promised to introduce a cat as well.

One the canines was sent for special training after two biting incidents at the new home.

And so far, there is no cat.