Hemmer, Perino press Psaki on possibility of mask guidance being removed: ‘We’ll be watching’
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki joins 'America's Newsroom' to discuss President Biden's comments, actions on COVID-19 following his 2-hour press conference.
Co-hosts Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer pressed White House press secretary Jen Psaki Thursday during a wide-ranging interview on "America’s Newsroom," where she was asked about the possibility of loosening COVID restrictions and how President Biden plans to tackle surging crime in American cities.
Perino, noting Boris Johnson’s announcement that the UK would be rolling back mask mandates and vaccine passports by March, asked Psaki whether the White House would soon follow suit and roll back restrictions themselves.
"Will the president provide America an off-ramp to COVID and especially for those the unvaccinated?" asked Perino, clarifying that, although she agrees with vaccination, some Americans feel they have become "scapegoats and second-class citizens."
Psaki responded by appearing to assuage concerns that COVID-19 restrictions have been partisan in nature, stating that 75% of Americans have been vaccinated and that "mathematically" not all of them are Democrats and/or Biden supporters.
"What the president’s trying to do is protect the country, protect people from death," said Psaki.
Psaki went on to explain the importance of vaccination but admitted that the White House is working toward lessening restrictions.
"At the same time, Dana, I think you make a really important point — we don’t want to live like this. You heard the president say ‘we don’t want to live like this forever.’ We want to get back to a point where we’re not wearing masks, of course. Where we are not worried about our kids being in school places, … That’s where we want to get to, and what we’re trying to do is continue to fight at the height of a pandemic to get to that point," Psaki said.
Psaki said that she could not make a prediction on when restrictions would ease but stated the White House would be "watching" the data "very closely" to make a determination.
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The White House press secretary was also asked about skyrocketing crime and whether President Biden would put pressure on prosecutors who down-charge crimes.
"Will he push on the progressive prosecutors that are, for example here in New York City, saying things like ‘taking a gun into a store, robbing it, but then leaving and nobody gets killed — that’s a misdemeanor?’ Is the president OK with that?" asked Perino.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Psaki made it clear that Biden’s "bottom line" was to refrain from weighing in on the decisions of prosecutors or the legal justice department. She added that the president has always been a supporter of local first responders, cops programs and the police at large - as well as additional funding for them.
"As you know, it was a big issue of defunding the police. That was absolutely never anything he proposed or supported — even in the face of real criticism from within his own party," Psaki said.
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Psaki's comments come on the heels of Biden's two-hour press conference Wednesday, during which he addressed a number of nationwide concerns.
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