Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, occasionally receives an unfavorable question. It doesn’t often happen with the corporate media members who make up practically all of the White House press corps, but Psaki is eager to show how difficult she can be in return when it does.
On July 23, Psaki was forced to deal with an unpleasant topic. She was pressed on why the Biden administration is refusing to reveal how many people inside the White House are infected with COVID.
It is believed that there is a current spike in infections that may be the result of the visit from renegade Texas Democratic state legislators who fled Austin to delay a vote there on a state election integrity law.
Psaki was asked, “This administration has long claimed that you’re trying to be the most transparent in history. If that’s the case, why don’t you release the number of breakthrough cases that you have with vaccinated staffers?”
She fumbled through a non-response, saying the country is in “a very different place” than six or seven months ago.
The reporter pressed on, asking, “Why not just provide the number? Are you trying to hide something?”
Through a look of disbelief, Psaki quipped, “Why do you need to have that information?”
The reporter answered Psaki with, “Transparency. The interest of the public. A better understanding of how breakthrough cases work here in the White House.”
Psaki then failed to answer the question and instead rambled into a statement of how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention manages COVID tracking everywhere other than inside the White House.
The clear message is that the White House believes there is no reason for the public to inquire about a suspected COVID outbreak among vaccinated personnel or other people inside the facility.
Whether the administration fears that accurate reporting will complicate its carefully constructed vaccine narrative is left to the imagination of concerned Americans. However, when exact numbers are finally revealed, the White House policy of denial and secrecy is bound to cause more problems than it avoids.
