Last Updated on October 18, 2021
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki spread misinformation about an incident where President Joe Biden and Jill Biden were seen not wearing masks in a D.C. restaurant over the weekend, before insinuating that the President’s hypocrisy on masks was inconsequential because “moments in time that don’t really reflect overarching policy.”
“There is mask requirement inside D.C. restaurants, yet President Biden and the first lady were not wearing masks while walking around a D.C. restaurant on Saturday. Why?” Fox news’ Peter Doocy asked on Monday.
DOOCY: "There is mask requirement inside D.C. restaurants, yet president Biden and the first lady were not wearing masks while walking around a D.C. restaurant on Saturday. Why?"
PSAKI: "…Of course there are moments when we all don't put masks back on as quickly as we should." pic.twitter.com/YbHY2FF5FA
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 18, 2021
“Well, I think what you are referring to is a photo of them walking out of a restaurant after they had eaten, masks in hand, where they had not put them back on yet,” Psaki replied, without providing a shred of evidence for this claim. “So I would say of course there are moments when we all don’t put masks back on as quickly as we should. But I don’t think we should lose, miss, lose the forest through the trees here, in that our objective is to get more people vaccinated, make sure that schools and companies around the country can put in place requirements to save more lives and keep people safe and, uh, you know, not overly focus on moments in time that don’t really reflect overarching policy.”
Psaki recently deflected from a question about rising gas prices by claiming that COVID remains “front and center in on the minds of the American people“:
“And there are several challenges facing the White House right now, not just getting Democrats united on the president’s domestic agenda but also skyrocketing gas prices, a bad jobs report last week, we’ve seen several issues including the President’s poll numbers seem to be reflecting that, so how is he viewing all of these challenges that are facing the White House right now?” a reporter asked Psaki.
“You didn’t mention COVID, but that continues to be front and center on the minds of the American people,” Psaki snapped. “Uh, people want to return back to a version of normal. Uh, they want to to go back to, uh, knowing that their kids are safe at school, that they can go to their workplaces, that uh, they don’t have to fear uh, for their uh safety uh, in communities.”
