Joe Biden is something else when it comes to lying. His first instinct whenever he is challenged seems to be to lie and deflect all blame. He can never take responsibility for anything. It’s so reflexive with him sometimes the lies are not at all thought out, and so are incredibly obvious.
Biden did just that today when he was confronted by New York Post reporter Steve Nelson on the White House lawn.
Nelson asked about a report in Vanity Fair that Biden had been offered a plan in October by health experts to get 732 million test kits out to Americans before the holiday season hit so that could help reduce the crush of people wanting tests.
The 10-page plan, which Vanity Fair has obtained, would enable the U.S. to finally do what many other countries had already done: Put rapid at-home COVID-19 testing into the hands of average citizens, allowing them to screen themselves in real time and thereby help reduce transmission. The plan called for an estimated 732 million tests per month, a number that would require a major ramp-up of manufacturing capacity. It also recommended, right on the first page, a nationwide “Testing Surge to Prevent Holiday COVID Surge.”
What happened to that? White House officials reportedly told the experts that they didn’t think they had the capacity to do it and so rejected the plan. Of course, then Biden told ABC’s David Muir last week that he wished that he had thought of putting out more test kits in response to Omicron. He also got confused calling test kits “pills.” We noted the times he’d talked about increasing test kits but then didn’t do it. He’d promised 300 million test kits in September. So he did think about it, he even talked about it, but he just didn’t do it.
But when Nelson asked him the question today, “Why did your administration reject a holiday testing surge in October? Does the buck stop with you there?” Biden had a different response. “We didn’t reject it,” Biden claimed.
Um, so where were those 732 million tests for the holidays that just went by if you didn’t reject it? If you’re going to lie, at least make it a more manageable lie, like you were never offered it. With this lie, he just confirmed that there was a plan offered to him. It wasn’t put into play because nobody got the tests before the holidays. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki even acknowledged just before Christmas that they were just working out details now for something to go into effect weeks from now, that they hadn’t even signed contracts for it. But that was only after the media flipped out on them over the past couple of weeks that they even said that.
Biden just can’t stop lying. He can’t even keep track of what he’s saying anymore which is why none of it makes any sense.
Then, once Biden lied to Nelson, he was off to the helicopter to go to Delaware for the week. Talk about an enervated executive — beyond lying, what has he done besides make things worse?
He’s out the door and gone for the week at midday on a Monday? Some work week! At this point, even CNN is acknowledging his confusion and ABC is talking about his failings. Unfortunately, it’s likely only to get worse.