On 7/21/2022, during press conference, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked transparency as well as where and when Joe Biden picked up the virus. Jean-Pierre stunned reporters when she brushed off an inquiry, saying: “I don’t think that matters.”
George Condon, a National Journal reporter and former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, urged Jean-Pierre to bring O’Connor to the briefing room. “The question is when will Dr. O’Connor come out? Because to just put out a statement and shield him from questions would be the least transparency of any White House in 50 years on a presidential illness,” Condon said.
“Wow, I wholeheartedly disagree on your last statement,” Jean-Pierre said. “So we are doing this very differently, very differently than, I would argue, than the last administration, and I’m happy to have that conversation with you.”
Number one, we did not see the President because we are following CDC guidance … I think — I believe, we believe — getting direct information, pretty — pretty much detailed information from this letter that we, in a transparent way, shared with all of you on how he was doing, and we have committed to do that every day.
Jean-Pierre and Jha also faced repeated requests from journalists for a briefing with Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to allow for more detailed discussion of the president’s symptoms and prognosis.
Reporter: Okay. And could we get the President’s physician here so that we can not play the game of telephone?
Jean-Pierre: I don’t think this is a game of telephone. You have Dr. Jha, who is a medical doctor himself … You’re going to hear regularly through a statement from Dr. O’Connor. And so we are going to be as transparent as — we are going to be transparent, as we have been. We put out a statement this morning. We put out a letter from Dr. O’Connor.
“Where exactly was the president infected?” a journalist asked Jean-Pierre and White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha at a briefing focused on the 79-year-old president’s health.
“I don’t think we know,” Jha said, before turning over the podium to Jean-Pierre.
“Look, I don’t think that that matters, right? I think what matters is we prepared for this moment,” the press secretary said, leaving reporters slack-jawed.
“You said it doesn’t matter where he got it. But how can it not matter where he got it?” asked CNN’s Jeff Zeleny. “That is something that, of course, is involved in contact tracing, this administration has taken it very seriously — how could it not matter?”
Jean-Pierre: I think what I —
Reporter: — where he got it?
“I think what I was trying to say is, what’s important now is that he has mild symptoms, is that he is working from the [White House] residence on behalf of the American people. That’s our focus,” Jean-Pierre said, before adding: “Look, we knew this was going to happen.”
Reporter: And then, Karine, you addressed this moments ago when you were asked about your earlier statement that it didn’t matter where he picked this up. Obviously, the most important thing is how the President is doing in the here and now. But will you let us know if you do figure out where the President did pick up this virus? I mean, it certainly does matter, at least for history.
Jean-Pierre: Well, as you know, the — the President travels, right?
Reporter: Well, that — that would be nice, and that would be perhaps one of the reasons for having his physician up here answering these questions.
But I’m — can you see the point I’m getting at? The point is: You don’t isolate when you’ve had a positive test. You isolate when you —
Jean-Pierre: No, I actually don’t —
Reporter: — have the symptoms.
Jean-Pierre: No, I actually —
Reporter: But that’s what the CDC guidance —
Jean-Pierre: No, I —
Reporter: — clearly says.
Jean-Pierre: Look, I — I see what you’re trying to do, but it’s not the case for everyone.
Reporter: Karine, you said that he was feeling fine yesterday during his speech but that he started to feel tired later on in the evening. I just want to clarify: Can you say exactly when he started feeling mild symptoms?
Jean-Pierre: I cannot say exactly when that occurred. I could say that — that, you know, he told us this morning he had a nose — a — a runny nose.
Jean-Pierre also refused to directly answer a reporter’s question about whether the government is preparing to transfer power temporarily to Vice President Kamala Harris should Biden’s condition worsen. “The president is — has mild symptoms, he’s able to do the business of the American people from the residence and that’s what matters right now,” she said.
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Not know when & doesn’t matter where !!! Wholeheartedly disagree least transparency of any presidential illness in 50 years.