White House Lie About Kamala Mask-Wearing Made Worse When Challenged by Reporters

On Thursday and Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris was observed on several occasions not abiding by CDC guidelines on mask-wearing, first when she presided over the Senate Thursday for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation vote maskless, and then on Friday when she joined President Biden, Jackson, and others for an indoor Oval Office ceremony to recognize Jackson being confirmed, where Harris was also maskless.

Harris’ comms director Jamal Simmons tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. The CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people who were in close contact with someone who has contracted COVID-19 “wear a well-fitting mask around others for 10 days from the date of your last close contact with someone with COVID-19.”

When asked last week about Harris blowing off CDC guidelines on both days, White House press secretary Jen Psaki treated the questions as tedious, and lied twice when pressed on the matter, saying that when Harris was indoors Thursday and Friday she was wearing a mask.

Except she wasn’t, as the photos and videos make clear:

The first Black woman to serve as @VP announces the confirmation of the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. History. pic.twitter.com/bP9boVlVPe

— DJ Koessler (@DJKoessler) April 7, 2022

Psaki said there was no “indoor ceremony” for Ketanji Brown Jackson yesterday and that Kamala Harris “has been wearing a mask inside.”

Here's Kamala YESTERDAY: pic.twitter.com/AcqyimNMOk

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 9, 2022

On Monday, Psaki was challenged on the White House’s lies about Harris not practicing what this administration preaches on CDC guidelines, and her answers just made the whole situation worse. She said the day was an “emotional, historic day” (which COVID apparently makes exceptions for) and also that Harris had had “human” moments where she wasn’t masked, and then said she was masked “99% of the time” (which was also a lie).

Watch:

Jen Psaki says that Kamala Harris wasn't wearing a mask indoors because "it was an emotional day, it was a historic day." pic.twitter.com/t0ndBM8uSI

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 11, 2022

Jen Psaki: Kamala Harris was ignoring mask rules because she’s “human” pic.twitter.com/wgj4j63jm0

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 11, 2022

This “rules for thee but not for me” stuff predates the Biden administration, of course, as Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Gov. Gavin Newsom were routinely caught in 2020 (and in 2021, and in 2022…) not practicing what they preach, but this also is a reminder of how Joe Biden started off his presidency – by violating his own executive order mandating people were masks on federal property just hours after he was inaugurated.

Paski’s response when asked about it at the time, was similar to what she said Monday.

She first said Biden “was celebrating an evening, a historic [inauguration] day in our country. And certainly, he signed the mask mandate because it’s a way to send a message to the American public about the importance of wearing masks.” In answer to a follow-up question, she doubled down.

“I think the power of his example is also the message he sends by signing 25 executive orders — including almost half of them related to Covid,” she stated. “The requirements that we’re all under every day here to ensure we’re sending that message to the public. Yesterday was a historic moment in our history. He was inaugurated as President of the United States. He was surrounded by his family. We take a number of precautions, but I think we have bigger issues to worry about at this moment in time.”

And there you have it. As long as it’s a Democrat celebrating a special day, it’s ok. Besides: “I think we have bigger issues to worry about at this moment in time.”

Those excuses never worked for Republicans, most of who were never proponents of mask mandates to begin with, and they shouldn’t work for the Biden White House, either. But they’ll get away with it, of course, because most in the media want to focus on the more “important” matters, like whether or not Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul were deliberately slighting Judge Jackson by forgetting to wear ties and thus being unable to vote from the Senate floor on Jackson’s confirmation Thursday.

Because #priorities and stuff.