Joe Biden tested positive again for COVID for the fifth straight day on Wednesday, so he is going to remain in isolation at the White House.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor released another letter on Biden’s condition and he acknowledged that Biden was experiencing symptoms since O’Connor said he came down with “rebound positivity” on Saturday.
O’Connor said they would be monitoring him daily.
“The President continues to feel well,” O’Connor wrote in a memorandum released by the White House. “He is still experiencing an occasional cough, but less frequently than yesterday. He remains fever-free and in good spirits. His temperature, pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation remain entirely normal. His lungs remain clear.”
O’Connor said Biden continues to be “specifically conscientious” to protect people in the White House who require any proximity to him. As we’ve seen that wasn’t exactly true, as he’s gone without a mask at least twice around photographers and near Janet Yellen. Initially, the doctor claimed that Biden hadn’t been feeling any symptoms. But when White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spilled that Biden was having lingering symptoms, that information about a cough is now showing up in the last two letters, thus showing we weren’t getting the straight story from them.
He first tested positive on July 21.
He hasn’t been seen in public since last Thursday until he made remarks he made about the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on Monday. That wasn’t “public” either since he spoke from the balcony of the White House.
So he’s been doing some things remotely. On Wednesday, he participated in an interagency task force meeting on abortion. Kamala Harris seemed to be in charge of the meeting instead.
This was the kind of moment that just defines the Biden-Harris team — their inability to get it right. It’s also darn funny. Biden is trying to speak virtually with the room but Harris doesn’t have the mic turned on. Harris can turn off the mute, it’s not clear if Biden can as well.
He tells her, “You’re on mute, I can’t hear you.” Maybe they didn’t want him to hear what they had to say. She finally gets it, then cackles in response saying, “We feel your presence.” It’s as though he were an entity from another plane and she was conducting a seance. Joe laughs.
Maximum cringe. It is like an old-school SNL skit. Except those were sometimes funny and didn’t have harmful consequences for the country when they didn’t get things right.