Surfshark.
At the White House briefing, Biden press secretary Jen Psaki continued to thank the Texas Democrats for “standing up for voting rights” and said she would not characterize the infectious trip to Washington as a “super-spreader event.”
After a number of Texas Democrats, who fled the state in protest over a GOP election integrity bill, tested positive for COVID-19, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Psaki if the controversial trip will be seen as a “super-spreader event.”
“More than 10 percent of the travelling party with these Texas Democrats now claim to have a breakthrough case. Is there any concern that this trip that was intended to advocate for voting rights is now a super-spreader event in Washington?” he asked at the White House press conference Tuesday.
Psaki said that’s “not a characterization we’re making from here.”
“We certainly understand there will be breakthrough cases. Even vaccines that are incredibly effective are not fool proof. They’re not 100 percent effective. We’ve seen that. Here’s the good news though. We know that these individuals—I think, if I’m correct—have been vaccinated. It means it protects from death. It protects from serious illness. It protects for the most part from hospitalization. So that is a good sign,” Psaki continued from the White House podium.
Doocy then questioned what the Biden administration’s message is to the Texas Democrats now that COVID-19, after contact, has reached the White House.
“Thanks for standing up for voting rights and the rights of Americans to have their voices heard at the voting booth and we appreciate their efforts,” Psaki said of the White House’s continuing message to the Texas Democrats.
Psaki wouldn’t answer at the Monday press conference on whether the runaway Texas Democrats who tested positive for COVID-19 should have worn masks on the flight fleeing to Washington. Psaki, the point person on the Biden administration’s vaccination campaign, shrugged questioning while she maintained she’s not “in a position” to assess the Democrat group’s actions.
Doocy asked Psaki if the unmasked lawmakers should have taken more precautions such as wearing face coverings on the arriving flight.
“I don’t think I’m going to be in a position here to assess what safety precautions [the Texas House Democrats] may or may not have taken,” Psaki answered.
Psaki framed the theatrical stunt intended to prevent the passage of the Republican-led election integrity bill in Texas as “the individuals were out there trying to elevate the issue of an individual’s right to vote.”
“We of course hope everyone abides by public health guidelines. That’s what we certainly recommend,” Psaki replied amid the White House’s intense efforts to influence Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and to crack down on purported “vaccine misinformation” from proliferating on Facebook.
Psaki also sidestepped concerns that Vice President Kamala Harris, who met with the Texas Democrats three days before the COVID-19 outbreak began, could still catch the ailment or pass it along to the commander-in-chief.
“There haven’t been additional precautions taken,” Psaki said after noting that Harris had tested negative and insisting that the vice president’s visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was scheduled and routine on Sunday.
Hopes of meeting with President Joe Biden soon have dimmed after the number of infected legislators in the delegation have raised since initial reporting, upending plans to return to the Capitol for more lobbying on federal voting legislation.
