White House press secretary Jen Psaki repeatedly avoided directly answering questions Monday about whether President Joe Biden would work with former President Donald Trump to encourage unvaccinated people to get the coronavirus vaccine.
The questions come as cases have spiked in multiple communities across the country and a significant number of people, especially in some rural communities that voted for Trump in the 2020 general election, maintain low vaccination levels.
RISE IN COVID-19 INFECTIONS THREATENS THE UNVACCINATED AND SOME HOSPITALS
“I would say that what we’ve seen in our data is that the most trusted voices are local officials, doctors, medical experts, civic leaders, clergy from time to time, and that is where we have really invested our funding and our resources,” Psaki responded when first asked if Biden would consider cutting a vaccine public service announcement with Trump to combat the “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
“We’ve seen almost every former president play a role in putting out a PSA, making sure people understood in the country that the vaccine is safe and effective,” she said. “We don’t believe that requires an embroidered invitation to be a part of, but certainly any role of anyone who has a platform where they can provide information to the public that the vaccine is safe, it is effective, we don’t see this as a political issue — we’d certainly welcome that engagement.”
Later, responding to a question about whether the White House would highlight efforts by the Trump administration to bring the vaccines to market, even if they weren’t conducted in an explicit partnership with the current administration, Psaki asked a reporter if he had “data to suggest that that’s the issue that’s preventing people from getting vaccinated.”
The reporter responded that “the communities that have the lowest vaccination rates did seem to vote for President Trump.” Psaki again asked him to provide “information related to whether or not the former president got credit is leading people not to get vaccinated.”
“Let me be very clear: Our objective is to ensure all Americans will get vaccinated. That would be of course — we’d love that. Democrats, Republicans, independents, it’s not a political issue to us,” she continued. “The virus does not look at people’s party affiliation. We recognize that the president is going to govern for all people. What I’m conveying to you is you’re jumping to a few conclusions that I don’t think data backs in terms of what the impacts are. And what we’re seeing is that misinformation traveling in a range of means, whether it’s social media platforms, some forms of media, some elected officials, is having the biggest factor as it relates to individuals not getting vaccinated because people don’t have access to accurate information.”
The White House did not respond to requests for clarification on Psaki’s comments by press time.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
You can watch Monday’s briefing below.
