Following his inauguration before a near-empty National Mall Wednesday — thanks to the political theatrics of 26,000 National Guard troops present to “prevent violence” and “protect the Capitol” — Joe Biden got busy signing 17 executive orders and acts.
One executive order in particular, Biden’s “100 days to mask” mandate on all federal property, proved to be little other than a publicity stunt designed to promulgate a narrative that Biden is serious about “following the science” in his efforts to end the COVID pandemic. Never mind the fact that the wearing of masks has become nearly ubiquitous in all federal buildings, as well as in airports and most businesses across the country. Furthermore, almost all the states have followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 guidelines.
However, when it came to actually following his own EO, Biden couldn’t be bothered. He and his family were caught Wednesday evening touring the Lincoln Memorial not wearing masks. When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was questioned about it the next day, she dismissively responded, “I think we have bigger issues to worry [about].” Well, so much for all that talk about mask-wearing being a “patriotic duty.”
Speaking of COVID and Biden administration narratives, the effort to paint the Trump administration’s response to combat the pandemic as an abysmal failure went into full swing yesterday, as CNN headlined, “Biden inheriting nonexistent coronavirus vaccine distribution plan and must start ‘from scratch,’ sources say.” Of course, those sources were unnamed Biden administration officials, and they were clearly speaking fiction.
This fake news is reminiscent of Barack Obama’s repeated claim upon entering office in 2009 that he was actually inheriting an economy in worse shape than originally reported. America was then subject to a steady stream of excuses in the following years. Obama always blamed the Bush administration for his failure to get the economy out of the great recession. Now the Biden administration is setting up to play that same “blame the other guy” game.
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom Biden chose to keep in his role leading the government’s effort in combating the pandemic, responded to a question from the press regarding this newly seeded narrative.
“Is the Biden administration starting from scratch with the vaccine distribution effort, or are you picking up where the Trump administration left off?” a reporter asked. Fauci answered, “No. I mean, we’re certainly not starting from scratch, because there is activity going on in the distribution. … So, [Biden’s plan] is taking what’s gone on and amplifying it in a big way.” The reporter then pressed, “President Biden said that what was left was abysmal. … Is there anything actionable that you’re taking from the previous administration?” Fauci responded, “We’re coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas that were not bad ideas with the previous administration. You can’t say it was not usable at all. So, we are continuing, but you’re going to see a real ramping up of it.”
If the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic was so “abysmal,” then why did Biden retain the same guy who led Trump’s COVID team? The simple answer is that it wasn’t an abysmal failure; in fact, it was by almost any objective measure an amazing success given the circumstances.
And what is Biden’s “ramped up” vaccination plan? He wants 100 million Americans vaccinated by the end of his first 100 days. What was the vaccination rate over the last two weeks of the Trump administration? Over 900,000 per day. And let’s not forget that it was under the Trump administration that not one, but two COVID-19 vaccinations were developed in record time.
By seeding this false claim that Biden inherited no vaccine distribution plan, he and his administration, along with their Leftmedia cheerleaders, are attempting to create a faux narrative of gross incompetence on the part of the Trump administration in order that any and all successes can be attributed only to the Biden administration. Even better, Biden can always blame any setbacks on the “abysmal” situation he inherited from Trump. It’s all a fiction, of course, but when did that ever stop the Left?