On Saturday, President Joe Biden ditched his usual ice cream cone for dinner at a chic restaurant. In a viral video from Instagram, Biden walked through the restaurant without a mask, despite the local mask requirements.
During Monday’s press conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden against concerns over his violation of the mask mandate. The next day, Psaki herself breached the federal mask mandate at the end of her press conference.
Take a look —
WATCH: Joe Biden walks through an expensive Washington, D.C. restaurant without a mask, violating D.C.'s mask mandate. pic.twitter.com/lZDDFbhjZT
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 17, 2021
Washington, D.C. law requires everyone wear masks in restaurants when not actively eating and drinking. In the video, Biden was clearly walking through the restaurant, not eating at a table.
One reporter asked Psaki on Monday, “There is a mask requirement inside D.C. restaurants, yet President Biden and the First Lady were not wearing masks while walking around a D.C. restaurant on Saturday. Why?”
Psaki dismissed the reporter’s concerns.
Instead, she focused on decentralizing mask requirements and raising the vaccination rate. She said:
Well, I think what you’re referring to is a photo of them walking out of a restaurant after they had eaten, masks in hand, where they had not yet put them back on yet.
So, I would say: Of course, there are moments when we all don’t put masks back on as quickly as we should, but I don’t think we should lose — miss — lose the forest through the trees here in that our objective here is to get more people vaccinated; make sure that schools and companies around the country can put in place requirements to save more lives and keep people safer; and, you know, not overly focus on moments in time that don’t reflect overarching policy.
The reporter rejected Psaki’s description of the incident. He said, “It was not just exiting the restaurant, though. He was walking through the restaurant with no mask on. There is a carveout for people under two or people who are actively eating or drinking. So I’m just curious why the President was doing this.”
Psaki responded curtly, “I think I just addressed it, Peter.”
The very next day, Psaki ended her press conference by walking away without a mask, a The Washington Post live stream showed… a violation of the Biden administration requirement for masks inside federal buildings, including masks for federal employees working onsite.
Biden and Psaki are exhibiting symptoms of what’s been called “quarantine fatigue.” The term became popular after an article in The Atlantic called “Quarantine Fatigue Is Real” by Julia Marcus, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School.
The term refers to a loss of motivation to comply with restrictions. Not all officials consider quarantine fatigue when drafting mask mandates.
Watch Psaki’s video here —
https://twitter.com/CalebJHull/status/1450522698384384004
The Horn editorial team