On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki disassembled a “gotcha” question from Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, who questioned President Joe Biden’s decision to wear a mask during a recent virtual summit of world leaders. Right-wing figures like Doocy have reduced themselves to these repeated apparent attempts at “gotcha” questions, as though pointing out that the president decided to take an extra precaution when interacting with others amidst a global pandemic is somehow going to make him look bad. The right-wing partisanship is laughable.
Asked why Biden was the “only world leader at the climate summit Zoom who was wearing a mask,” Psaki replied as follows:
‘Because he is sending a message to the world that he is putting in place precautions and continuing to do that as leader of the United States. And I don’t know what set-ups they all had in their countries — that may warrant some more reporting or not — but obviously he had a [press] pool there for portions, there were additional staff there, additional personnel, and that’s the sort of model that we try to keep ourselves to here.’
After Doocy followed up by referencing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that Americans can safely gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or practicing social distancing, Psaki noted that the outline to which Doocy was referring was “not workplace guidance.” Doocy was misrepresenting the guidance. As she added:
‘We still wear masks around here, just like you all are wearing masks, and we wear masks in our offices and continue to abide by that until that guidance changes.’
Watch Psaki below:
Fox News’ Peter Doocy tried to call out Pres. Biden for wearing a mask and Jen Psaki reminded him of the CDC guidelines pic.twitter.com/Xo0ZYXi0oQ
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 26, 2021
At another point during the same briefing, Psaki pointedly dismantled an argument from right-wing reporter David Brody, who claimed that “tens of millions of people are concerned about H.R. 1 and budget reconciliation and going with that 50-vote threshold.” This claim that tens of millions of people are actively concerned about the Senate procedural move known as budget reconciliation does not seem realistic. Under budget reconciliation, the Senate can pass certain legislation with the support of a simple majority of the chamber, which frustrates Republicans in the chamber minority intent on obstruction.
Psaki commented as follows after Brody reiterated his claim about procedural concern from “tens of millions” of Americans:
‘I’m not sure the polling bears that out, but I will say that the president’s view is that bringing the country together is bringing the American people together, so when I say he’s focused on bringing people together, bringing Democrats and Republicans together — he’s not talking about solving bipartisanship in this zip code here.’
Watch below:
Psaki: Do you think tens of millions of people are concerned about him not meeting with Kevin McCarthy? pic.twitter.com/UmdysVn4e6
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2021
