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Live Updates: President Biden visits Research Triangle Park

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President Joe Biden is greeted by Gov. Roy Cooper after arriving via Air Force One at RDU International Airport Tuesday, March 28, 2023. Biden plans to visit Wolfspeed in Durham Tuesday where he will launch his Investing in America Tour.

tlong@newsobserver.com

President Joe Biden has arrived in Research Triangle Park, where he’ll tout his national economic agenda at one of the Triangle’s largest employers.

Biden is touring the Durham campus of the semiconductor chip manufacturer Wolfspeed, which has ambitious growth plans both globally and in North Carolina.

Wolfspeed makes semiconductors, the devices needed for everything from phones to aircraft. The company specializes in — and dominates the market for — an efficient kind of semiconductor that is important for a range of uses, including for electric vehicles. China controls much of the rest of the supply chain for electric cars, so the company is significant for Biden’s efforts to make sure domestic manufacturing can compete with China.

READ MORE: As Biden visits, the Durham chip manufacturer Wolfspeed sees the sky as the limit

Durham is Biden’s inaugural stop on his administration’s three-week “Investing in America” tour.

2:15 p.m.: Lab tour

Biden toured the company’s Power Applications Lab, viewing and handling semiconductor materials and meeting employees.

2:05 p.m.: Biden touring Wolfspeed

President Joe Biden’s motorcade arrived at Wolfspeed in Research Triangle Park at 1:40 p.m.

Biden is seeing a demonstration of the company’s technology.

President Joe Biden at Wolfspeed in Durham’s Research Triangle Park on Tuesday, March 28, 2023.
President Joe Biden at Wolfspeed in Durham’s Research Triangle Park on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. Brian Gordon bgordon@newsobserver.com

2 p.m.: Biden commented on gun violence on his way to NC

President Joe Biden’s visit to North Carolina comes as the nation reels from another mass shooting, this time at a private Christian grade school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Biden was asked before his departure from the White House on Tuesday if he plans to take any action on gun violence.

“I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns,” the Democratic president said, according to a White House transcript.

“The Congress has to act,” he went on to say. “The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre; it’s a crazy idea. They’re against that. And so, I think the Congress should be passing the assault weapons ban. I want to remind you, the last time we passed the assault weapons ban, violent shootings went down, mass shootings went down.

“So I can’t do anything except plead with the Congress to act reasonably.”

1:50 p.m.: More on Wolfspeed

Wolfspeed was born on the campus of N.C. State University.

In the late 1980s, a group of graduate students were working under a grant from the Office of Naval Research to study a unique type of semiconducting material called silicon carbide. In 1987, the five students and one other person created Cree to commercialize what they’d discovered.

Today called Wolfspeed, the company is the world leader in silicon carbide manufacturing.

“If we’re dependent on Asia for chips, we’re going to be in trouble,” John Edmond, Wolfspeed co-founder, said in an interview. “You can have supply chain issues, (as seen) in this 100-year pandemic that just occurred.”

“We’ve always manufactured in the U.S.,” he said. “This company is home-grown, North Carolina, N.C. State, and to grow it is the right thing to do, and so that’s what we’re doing.”

1:40 p.m.: Biden greeted by Cooper, Durham officials at airport

Biden is on the way to Research Triangle Park.

Air Force One touched down at Raleigh-Durham International Airport at 1:06 p.m., according to a White House press pool report. Gov. Roy Cooper, Durham County Commissioners Chair Brenda Howerton and Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal greeted Biden as he left the plane at 1:20 p.m.

Traveling with Biden are Secretary Gina Raimondo of the Department of Commerce and Reps. Valerie Foushee and Wiley Nickel, among others.

1 p.m.: What Democrats and Republicans say

Ahead of the president’s visit, the state’s competing political parties — predictably — released conflicting comments.

“President Biden’s economic plan prioritizes American manufacturers like Wolfspeed, which will put more money into the pockets of North Carolina families with record job growth, strengthen our supply chains, and drive our clean energy future,” the North Carolina Democratic Party said in a statement Tuesday.

The North Carolina Republican Party tweeted: “Dems struggle to sell an ‘America First’ policy as if it’s an original idea, while NC families struggle under the reality of Democrats’ hyper-spending, Big Government policies – inflated prices and diminished hopes.”

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.

This story was originally published March 28, 2023, 1:39 PM.

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