President Joe Biden appeared to ignore the advice of his aides once again on Tuesday, when he decided to take questions after delivering an address on the state of the coronavirus pandemic at the White House.
Biden told vaccinated Americans they can enjoy Christmas safely, insisted we are not going back to March 2020 and toned down his attacks on the unvaccinated as he announced his plan to tackle the surge of Omicron over the winter.
His speech was twice punctuated by coughs — just a day after the White House disclosed that the 79-year-old president had a close contact with an administration official who then tested positive for COVID-19.
After speaking the president took a few questions from reporters but abruptly ended the back-and-forth by saying, ‘I’m not supposed to be having this press conference.’
One reporter asked whether the White House not being more prepared for the current spike demand in testing that’s forced people across the country to wait in hours-long lines amounted to a ‘failure.’
Joe Biden addressed the nation for roughly 30 minutes during which he encouraged vaccinated Americans to enjoy Christmas safely and took questions from reporters about the US rollout of COVID-19 tests. At one point while he was discussing COVID testing, Biden briefly coughed – just a day after his Press Secretary announced he had a close contact with an official who tested positive
Soon after he began answering Biden was drowned out by reporters shouting. He winked at someone off camera and muttered, ‘Let me finish the question,’ prompting laughter from the press.
But Biden continued, countering that nobody had predicted how fast Omicron would spread and send people ‘rushing to the counter’ for tests seemingly overnight.
Then asked ‘what took so long’ to try and combat testing delays, Biden said it didn’t ‘take so long at all.’
‘What happened was, the Omicron virus spread more rapidly than anybody thought,’ he said.
‘If I had told you four weeks ago that this would spread – by a day-to-day basis – it would spread by 1500 percent, 200 percent, 500 percent, I think you’d have looked at me and said “Biden, what are you drinking?” But that’s what it did.’
At another point he said he was considering lifting the US’s controversial travel ban on South Africa after incoming flights had been stopped in a bid to slow Omicron’s inevitable spread.
COVID-19 infections have surged to record highs in parts of the United States once again as the Omicron variant takes over all but two states. The White House and federal health officials warn that the unvaccinated are especially at risk of severe illness or even death
Biden was also asked about the fallout between him and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin after the moderate Democrat effectively killed the president’s chances of passing his $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill this year.
He discussed the family and medical benefits in the bill.
Biden’s voice grew intense when he expressed concern about the high price of life-saving insulin as an example of out-of-control drug prices.
‘What do you do, if you’re a mom and a dad working for minimum wage, busting your neck, you look at your kid, and you know if you don’t get that vaccine for them – excuse me, if you don’t get that drug for them…what happens?’ Biden said.
His voice grew more aggressive as the room went silent.
‘You strip away all the dignity,’ the president said at a near-yell. ‘Imagine being a parent, looking at a child and you can’t afford – you have no house to borrow against, you have no savings – it’s wrong. Bur all the things in the bill are going to reduce prices for middle class and working class people.’
He ended with, ‘but I’m not supposed to be having this press conference right now’ before telling one more reporter that he and Manchin would ‘get something done.’
The Omicron variant (purple) is now the dominant Covid strain in the U.S., making up 73% of cases last week. It overtakes the Delta variant (orange) which had been dominant since July
Cars line up a testing facility in Sterling, Virginia, on Tuesday ahead of the Christmas travel rush
Biden walked out of the room as reporters continued to shout questions behind him, his appearance totaling roughly half an hour.
A day earlier, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki gave a cryptic response when she was asked at her daily briefing if Biden would take questions at the White House today.
‘He takes questions multiple times a week,’ Psaki said. ‘So, depends on what you ask.’
His aides likely wanted to keep his appearance short as more and more COVID-19 breakthrough cases pop up in Washington.
Four Democrat lawmakers tested positive for the virus sine Sunday, along with the Republican governor of Maryland. All five had been fully-vaccinated and boosted,
On Friday, Biden spent about half an hour near an official who later tested positive aboard Air Force One on a trip from South Carolina to Pennsylvania, according to a statement issued by Psaki.
The official, who was also fully-vaccinated and received their booster, began feeling mild symptoms and got their diagnosis just yesterday.
Biden himself has since tested negative.
On Monday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the Omicron variant is now the most dominant strain in the US, accounting for 73 percent of all new cases just 20 days after it was first detected here.
In his Tuesday speech Biden outlined a battle plan that includes sending 1,000 troops to overwhelmed hospitals sending 500 million tests to American homes amid a nationwide shortage and with lines forming at testing centers.
Biden said: ‘If you’re not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned,’ with studies showing the unvaccinated have virtually no immunity against Omicron.
‘This is not March 2020,’ he added, citing the fact that 61.5 percent of Americans are vaccinated and we are better prepared.
He once again pleaded with the unvaccinated to get their shots – but without some of his harshest recent comments, where he said ‘sickness and death’ awaits.
‘You have an obligation to yourselves, to your family and quite frankly, I know I’ll get criticized for this, to your country,’ Biden said.
‘Please get vaccinated. It’s the only responsible thing to do,’ he said.
He called Omicron ‘serious, potentially deadly business for unvaccinated people.’
He called it people’s ‘patriotic duty’ – while also urging Americans to get booster shots six months after their second vaccine shot. ‘I got my booster shot as soon as they were available,’ he said.
He even credited former President Donald Trump, who said publicly that he got his own booster shot.
‘It may be one of the few things he and I agree on,’ Biden quipped.
He spoke to Americans’ frustration with yet another surge. ‘We’ll get through this,’ he said from the State Dining Room of the White House.
He began his remarks by acknowledging ‘how tired, worried and frustrated I know you are. I know how you’re feeling. For many of you, this will be the first or even the second Christmas where you look across the table being an empty kitchen chair there. Tens of millions have gotten sick, all experienced upheaval in our lives.’
But he said the nation was ‘tougher’ than COVID, ‘because we have the power of science and vaccines to prevent illness and save lives.’
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