Biden Pushes Back on Dem Gov's Who Lifted Mask Mandates
The Democratic Party has quite a bit of work left to do before the 2022 midterms arrive, and the Biden administration certainly isn’t making anything easier.
A bulk of the effort that the left must muster in the coming months will be focused toward unifying the party and presenting a dignified Democratic front. This has been made all of the more difficult by the online power of the radical-left, who have essentially smothered any moderate, centrist figures in the party with their own hyperbolic drivel.
Now, to make matters even worse, President Joe Biden appears to be anchoring his COVID response in a rather immoveable manner, further separating the far left from the middle, and the middle from wherever it is that he sees himself at.
News broke that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will announce their decisions to lift mask mandates in their states after a flood of other Democrat governors led the way forward.
Earlier this week, Democrat governors, including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Delaware Gov. John Carney, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, announced their decisions to lift mask mandates in their states.
The sudden turnaround shows that even Democrats realize voters are ready to move beyond masking mandates, especially for children in school.
But then came a terse admonishment from the White House:
The White House on Tuesday signaled they would not be lifting mask mandates, indicating that instead Biden would follow the advice of the CDC.
“The CDC moves at the pace of data and science,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during the daily press briefing.
But the White House did not condemn Democrats for bailing on the mask mandates and the “science” behind the CDC mandates, despite repeated condemnations of Republican governors who lifted mandates months ago.
“We don’t look at it through that prism,” Psaki said, when asked if the White House was concerned Democrats were “throwing the science away” by lifting the mandates.
“[O]ur hope is that states, leaders will look at the science and data about what’s going on, they’ll make decisions about local school districts,” Psaki continued.
As if that wasn’t clear enough, Biden would go on to tweet this:
Get vaccinated.
Get boosted.
Wear a mask while you’re in public.We are going to get through this together.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 8, 2022
The pot shot, aimed directly at his fellow Democrats, is precisely the sort of provocation that could lead the party to disaster in the coming elections.