The Biden administration is putting on a brave face while grappling with a rapidly growing COVID-19 outbreak on Capitol Hill and in the White House that could seriously jeopardize Democrats’ hopes of using the president’s pandemic approach to boost them in the midterm elections.
Over the past three days, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and two members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Attorney General Merrick Garland, all tested positive for the coronavirus. The White House has maintained that Biden was not deemed a close contact with any of them despite rubbing elbows and trading smooches with Pelosi at two events this week. The president tested negative Wednesday night and again Friday morning.
Jamal Simmons, Vice President Kamala Harris’s communications director, tested positive Wednesday. He was ruled to have been a close contact of Harris, though the vice president has since tested negative. Michael LaRosa, press secretary to first lady Jill Biden, also tested positive for COVID-19, a Fox News reporter tweeted on Thursday.
Meanwhile, nearly 10 other lawmakers and numerous reporters, all of whom attended the white-tie Gridiron Dinner in Washington on Saturday night, have tested positive this week. Media reports are starting to refer to the annual affair as another “superspreader” event.
WHITE HOUSE: PELOSI-BIDEN SMOOCH NOT A ‘CLOSE CONTACT’
However, the White House has not updated any of the protocols protecting Biden from exposure.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki fielded a number of pointed questions on the subject during Thursday’s press briefing. She was notably pressed on how frequently the president and people he comes into contact with are tested, the semantics of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s “6-foot” rule, and why they continue to schedule large-scale public events with the president, such as Friday’s celebratory ceremony at the White House following Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation.
Psaki made sure to stress that the decision to hold Friday’s event outdoors was because of the weather and not because of the rising number of cases in Washington.
“In terms of additional testing or anything along those lines, those assessments would be made by the president’s doctor,” she said in one such exchange. “We have incredibly stringent protocols here at the White House that we keep in place to keep the president safe, to keep everybody safe. Those go over and above CDC guidelines, and that includes ensuring that anyone who is going to be around the president is tested [and that] every member of the staff is on a regular testing protocol. If you’re going to see him in person, whether you’re traveling with him or you’re meeting in the Oval Office, you will be tested.”
Psaki added that in the event of positive cases among staff, the White House holds “socially distanced meetings,” adding that “for those employees who test positive, they’re required to isolate — of course, in alignment with CDC guidance — [and] must test negative before returning to work.”
She reiterated in the face of numerous follow-up questions that the White House is “going to continue to follow the protocols” outlined by CDC guidance.
Psaki also told reporters that Biden isn’t worried about catching COVID-19 because “he knows there are a number of steps and precautions that we put in place and [that] we take to protect him and protect the vice president and other senior members of the team.”
This latest Washington wave comes as the Biden administration has sought to “turn the page” on the virus — regardless of an uptick in BA.2 variant cases along the Eastern Seaboard.
Biden’s CDC loosened its mask use guidance in March and could be preparing to drop requirements for public transportation later this month.
Furthermore, the administration has quietly scaled back public appearances from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser and the sole member of former President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force still working at the White House.
Still, the new string of cases does present the administration with a news hook to link to its push for additional COVID-19 funding. Congress removed Biden’s supplemental request from the latest government funding bill, and a stand-alone $10 billion bipartisan agreement fell through earlier this week. Both the White House and lawmakers viewed the bill as flawed.
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“I would remind you and reiterate that we also put out a plan just a month ago that made clear that, well, COVID-19 will continue to be with us,” Psaki added Thursday. “We will see cases rise and fall as we are seeing them rise now, which is to be expected given the transmissibility of BA.2. We now have steps to go back to many of our normal routines and alliances in alignment with what the CDC continues to recommend.”
