On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden called a “crisis averted” after a plan to postpone the debt ceiling passed. Biden urged Americans to unite, citing his deal with senior Congress Republican Kevin McCarthy.

“No matter how tough our politics gets, we need to see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans,” he added. “Stop shouting, lower the temperature and work together to pursue progress.”

Biden, a Democrat, said he would sign the package into law on Saturday, ending months of uncertainty and preventing a first-ever U.S. default on June 5.

It was crucial to strike an agreement, and it’s great news for Americans. Nobody received their wish. “But the American people got what they needed,” Biden remarked while sitting at the presidential office’s iconic “Resolute Desk.”

“We averted an economic crisis, an economic collapse,” he remarked.

This week, the Senate and House enacted a bill suspending the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling after tense discussions.

Biden said maintaining full confidence and credit was essential to U.S. economic growth. “The stakes could not have been higher,” Biden added.

The president, seeking re-election, praised House Speaker McCarthy, his main bargaining partner, and underlined other bipartisan laws he has signed.

A Trump loyalist, McCarthy was one of 147 Republicans who failed to overturn Biden’s 2020 election.

“We were able to get along, get things done,” Biden stated. “Both sides operated in good faith.”

Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling for months, demanding Biden and Democrats decrease spending in the 2024 budget. The White House requested a clean debt ceiling deal before negotiations.

Biden and McCarthy reached a last-minute agreement to suspend the debt ceiling until January 2025 and control spending.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled House 314 to 117 and the Democrat-controlled Senate 63 to 36.

“Both chambers voted overwhelmingly,” Biden remarked.

Despite the arrangement allowing the government to satisfy its obligations, Fitch Ratings said Friday the U.S.’ “AAA” credit rating would remain on negative watch.

U.S. presidents have reserved Oval Office addresses for spectacular incidents like Sept. 11, 2001, or the Challenger space shuttle explosion.

The White House claimed Biden made his speech there due to the gravity of the situation if the debt ceiling was not increased.

After the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986 and the 9/11 attacks, former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office. Likewise, after the 2010 Gulf Coast B.P. oil catastrophe, Obama spoke from the Oval Office.

Biden, who took office in January 2021, has delivered State of the Union addresses from the Capitol and COVID-19 pandemic speeches from the White House East Room during primetime.

As Biden seeks a second term against a burgeoning field of Republican candidates, the Friday night address is his first from the Oval Office, highlighting the presidency’s power and authority.