White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre joined the “Morning Joe” team on Wednesday to, among other things, respond to President Joe Biden’s “60 Minutes” interview from Sunday. Putting back the president’s claim that the COVID-19 pandemic is “over,” he acknowledged Mika Brzezinski and others that “it’s more manageable now” and “he’s very consistent about it.”
While Biden’s statement caused a stir on Capitol Hill and reportedly took his advisory team by surprise, Jean-Pierre argued that Biden’s “epidemic is over” claim was the cause.
“Just to kick back for a second, what we saw during that ’60 Minutes’ interview when he made those comments: He was walking through the halls of the Detroit car show, the Detroit car show, and He was looking around,” the press secretary began. “We have to remember the last time he held that event three years ago….so we are in a different time. He has been very consistent about it.”
Jean-Pierre credits Biden and his administration for bringing America to a different time, where we can do car shows in person, we can drive our kids to school, and life looks a little more normal.
“It is because we are ready now. Now we are ready,” she said. “We know how to deal with this pandemic. It is more manageable now. It is not as disruptive as it has been in earlier years. And so, and it’s because of what this President has done on Day 1. If you think about where we were, 3,000 people were dying a day, which is reduced by 90%. We think about how schools closed; Now schools are open. Think businesses were closed, now businesses are open. And it is because of the work that this administration has done.”
The press secretary then took note of Biden’s entire statement about the COVID-19 situation, where he said, “We still have a problem with COVID. We are still working a lot on this, but the pandemic is over. Mind you, no one is wearing a mask. Everyone seems to be in pretty good shape.”
Jean-Pierre explained: “What he has been very consistent about is that we have to continue to put a foot on it so that we can have wealth, so that we are ahead of, you know, as we see There are future vaccines and future treatments, we need to make sure we are ready for it.”
The president’s widely publicized statements have been criticized by medical professionals all the way to leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, who said at an event on Monday that “we are not where we need to be if we are able to.” are going to have to, quote, ‘live with the virus,’ because we know we’re not going to eradicate it.”
On average, more than 2,500 Americans are still dying from COVID-19 each week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Watch Jean-Pierre’s full interview with “Morning Joe” in the video above.
