President Biden signs his $1.9T stimulus bill in the Oval Office. Yahoo Finance's Jessica Smith and Alexis Christoforous discuss.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I want to go right to the White House now, where Joe Biden is about to sign that stimulus package into law. Let us watch.

JOE BIDEN: That this bill has been discussed and debated. It's clear that an overwhelming percentage of the American people-- Democrats, Independents, our Republican friends-- have made it clear, the people out there made it clear they strongly support the American Rescue Plan. Yesterday with the final passage of the plan in the House of Representatives, their voices were heard, and reflected in everything we have in this bill.

And I believe this is, and most people I think do as well, this historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country and giving people in this nation, working people, middle class folks, the people who built the country a fighting chance. That's what the essence of it is. And I'm going to have a lot more to say about that tonight and the next couple of days, and be able to take your questions. But in the meantime, what I'm going to do is sign this bill and make a presentation tonight.

And then there's gonna be plenty of opportunities we're going to be on the road, not only talking about what I'm talking about tonight is the impact on the virus and how we're gonna end this pandemic, and we're going to talk all the elements of the bill beginning Friday and Saturday through the weekend. So thank you for being here.

Got it. Thank you all. Appreciate it.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: And there you have it. A historic moment that came early for President Biden in his presidency. A victory for the Biden administration as he signs that $1.9 trillion stimulus relief bill into law. Of course, he did it on the backs of the Democrats with little to no support from Republicans. We've got our Washington correspondent Jessica Smith joining us now. Jess, this is definitely a big win that I know he will speak about tonight when he addresses the nation.

He definitely will. And I think as you heard there, he is going to continue and try and stress that the majority of Americans support this legislation, even though not a single Republican in Congress voted for it. That is going to be the message that the White House is trying to put forward, that this was bipartisan across the country, though it wasn't bipartisan in Washington. And you'll hear him, as you mentioned there, he's going to be selling the benefits of this package across the country.

JESSICA SMITH: He and Vice President Harris are now headed to Georgia next week to really kick that off. Georgia, of course, so important. In order for this bill to get done, it would not have gotten done if the Georgia voters did not elect two Democratic senators in those runoff elections. So now the White House is going to be selling the benefits of this package across the country. That is something that I've heard from Democrats, from the White House. They are going to try and avoid what they see as mistakes made in 2009, when Democrats didn't take enough credit, as they put it, for the rescue package at that point.

And then it really cost them in the 2010 midterms. That is what Democratic lawmakers are saying they're trying to avoid this time around.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, Jessica Smith. Thanks so much. And again, President Biden signing that $1.9 trillion stimulus package into law, saying just moments ago at the White House that he's trying to give the American public a fighting chance during this virus. And he's going to be addressing the public tonight in a primetime address, his first as president, to discuss the White House's next steps as it relates to the pandemic and vaccine distribution.