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Fox News reporter sends Psaki into spin mode when he confronts her over Biden's apparent travel ban hypocrisy

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki went into spin mode Monday when confronted by a Fox News reporter about President Joe Biden’s apparent hypocrisy in enacting a travel ban on eight African countries.

Biden announced the travel ban — which went into effect Monday — last week at the same time the World Health Organization warned that a new COVID-19 variant, dubbed “Omicron,” could trigger new waves of COVID infections. But it was immediately pointed out that Biden sharply criticized former President Donald Trump after he enacted travel restrictions on China in January 2020.

What did Psaki say?

During Monday’s press briefing at the White House, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki about Biden’s criticism of Trump’s actions and how, in light of Biden’s travel ban, the president is not guilty of hypocrisy.

Doocy asked, “Before Joe Biden was president, he said that COVID travel restrictions on foreign countries were ‘hysterical xenophobia’ and ‘fearmongering.’ So what changed?”

The question sent Psaki into total spin mode. In fact, Psaki actually claimed that Biden was not referring to Trump’s travel ban per se, but rather his rhetoric surrounding China, where the COVID pandemic originated. Psaki claimed Biden has not been critical of travel restrictions.

Well, I would say, first — to put it in full context, Peter — what the president was critical of was the way that the former president put out, I believe, a xenophobic tweet, and what he called the coronavirus, and who he directed it at.

The president has not been critical of travel restrictions. We have put those in place ourselves. We put them in place ourselves in the spring. But no, he believes we should follow the advice of health and medical experts. That’s exactly what he did in putting in place these restrictions over the weekend.




Reporter Presses Psaki On Biden Calling Trump’s Travel Restrictions ‘Xenophobic’

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But what really happened?

While campaigning in Iowa on Jan. 31, 2020, Biden slammed Trump for “hysterical xenophobia” and “fearmongering” on the same day Trump announced travel restrictions banning foreign nationals who had been in China from entering the U.S.

“We have, right now, a crisis with the coronavirus,” Biden said. “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”

Contrary to Psaki’s claims, Reuters reported at the time that Biden was not referring to Trump’s tweets, but rather to Trump’s policies.

From Reuters:

Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden on Friday criticized President Donald Trump for reducing U.S. oversight of global health issues before the coronavirus outbreak in China, which has spread rapidly to several countries including the United States.
…
Biden said Trump had rolled back progress on global health oversight that occurred when he was vice president from 2009 to 2017. In particular, he cited “draconian cuts” the White House proposed to the budgets of “the very agencies that we need to fight this outbreak,” including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Even further contradicting Psaki is the fact that Trump only tweeted positively about China and the coronavirus in January 2020.

  • On Jan. 24, 2020, Trump tweeted: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
  • On Jan. 27, 2020, Trump tweeted: “We are in very close communication with China concerning the virus. Very few cases reported in USA, but strongly on watch. We have offered China and President Xi any help that is necessary. Our experts are extraordinary!”

In fact, a Washington Post article from June 2020 seems to indicate that Trump did not begin using “racially insensitive” terms to refer to COVID-19 — like “Chinese virus” or “kung flu” — until March 2020.

Meanwhile, the media engaged in a full-court press to criticize Trump for enacting the travel restrictions. For example, CNN published a story titled, “The US coronavirus travel ban could backfire. Here’s how,” while Politico ran a story with the same angle, “Coronavirus quarantine, travel ban could backfire, experts fear.”

The irony of the media’s narrative at the time is encapsulated in a Vox story published in late January 2020, which claimed travel bans don’t work. An editor’s note on that story, added in April 2021, reads, “This article, published in January 2020, does not reflect the emerging science around travel restrictions to prevent the spread of epidemics.”

Blackwell & Roman: One Biden Vax Mandate Down, 3 to Go

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A federal judge has struck down one of President Joe Biden’s four COVID vaccine mandates, ruling that it violates federal law to force healthcare providers to fire doctors and nurses who object to the vaccination. One mandate down, three to go.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a mandate that any healthcare provider receiving money from its programs must demand COVID-19 vaccinations of its employees, and fire any healthcare workers who do not get a vaccination. CMS is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is led by Secretary Xavier Becerra.

But Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt led a coalition of states to file a legal challenge to this vaccine mandate. On Monday, Judge Matthew Schelp of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri agreed with Schmidt and his fellow state attorneys general that Biden’s mandate is illegal. The judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking that mandate immediately.

Government mandates come in all shapes and sizes. The Constitution gives some matters to the federal government and assigns other matters to the states. And in our form of limited government there are many areas of life where the government has no business at all, leaving free people and free markets to make their own decisions.

To the extent vaccines could ever be mandated by the government, there are two things to keep in mind. The first thing is that the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, so any such mandate is subordinate to constitutional guarantees of religious liberty, due process, and other individual rights.

The second thing is that state governments have primary responsibility for vaccines. States have “police power,” which includes the power to make laws for public health, public safety, personal responsibility, and general social welfare.

Protesters rally against vaccine mandates on November 20, 2021 in New York City. A U.S. Circuit Court granted an emergency stay to temporarily stop the Biden administration’s vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

The federal government has no police power and is limited to the powers granted it by the Constitution. But the Constitution has no Vaccine Clause, or even a general Public Health Clause.

Judge Schelp schooled the Biden administration on all that, but also didn’t even get into those constitutional provisions because the Healthcare Vaccine Mandate had another constitutional flaw: It violated the separation of powers because Congress never passed a law attempting to give the executive branch the power to mandate COVID vaccines, so it doesn’t matter whether such a law would ever survive a constitutional challenge.

Instead, the Healthcare Vaccine Mandate was merely an agency regulation, one that CMS issued pursuant to Biden’s decision.

But a cardinal principle of our constitutional system is that every agency in Article II’s executive branch is made by Article I’s Congress and has only the powers that Congress confers upon it. An agency’s regulations must be authorized by Congress’s laws and must satisfy every procedure that Congress requires before that regulation has lawful authority over American citizens and businesses.

This is where Judge Schelp found the Healthcare Vaccine Mandate wanting.

First, the court held that the federal statute CMS cited for its authority did not grant such power. It was just a plain-vanilla provision saying that the HHS secretary has authority to make rules to administer Medicare and Medicaid, and the judge cited Supreme Court cases that said Congress needs to speak clearly if it intends to confer power on an agency to decide matters of major economic or political significance.

Congress must also speak clearly if it wishes to alter the balance between federal and state governments. And Congress must also speak clearly if it wants to push the envelope of its constitutional authority.

For all these reasons, the judge found the Biden administration’s argument wanting because Congress never made a clear statement on any of those fronts.

Then second, the court held that even if Congress had conferred such sweeping power, and even if such a grant was allowed by the Constitution, that CMS did not follow the law that requires CMS to give the public notice and then give the private sector time to submit comments, concerns, and objectors.

CMS claimed that the Healthcare Vaccine Mandate was covered by a narrow emergency exemption to the notice-and-comment requirement, but the court rejected that argument. Legal precedent holds that CMS’s failure to provide notice and comment is fatal to any regulation issued without it.

Now this trial judge’s decision will go up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, one of the most conservative appeals courts in the nation, thanks to President Donald Trump. The prospects are excellent that the appellate court will affirm this judgment, and that the Supreme Court will in turn affirm that review.

In other words, Biden’s first vaccine mandate is dead. But there are three more to go.

First is Biden’s executive order forcing all federal employees to get a vaccine. That is already being challenged in some courts, with others planned.

Second is Biden’s executive order compelling all federal contractors to get a vaccine. That is illegal for some of the same reasons, plus additional reasons. For this mandate too, challenges are underway, with more coming.

And finally is Biden’s OSHA Mandate, forcing all employers with 100-plus employees to vaccinate their workers. The Fifth Circuit federal appeals court has already blocked that mandate nationwide, and now the Sixth Circuit court has consolidated all challenges to the OSHA Mandate across the nation under its jurisdiction for a final decision.

So freedom is on the march for matters of conscience and personal liberty. Presidents don’t make laws in this country. Congress makes laws. And everyone in government must follow the Constitution.

Biden has already learned that for one of his illegal mandates, and he’ll learn that lesson three more times in the months ahead.

Ken Blackwell is a senior advisor to the Family Research Council and a policy board member of the American Constitutional Rights Union (ACRU). Lori Roman is president of the ACRU.

U.N. Sounds Alarm on Biden-Style Africa Travel Bans

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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned travel bans rapidly imposed in the past week on southern African countries in response to the discovery of a new Chinese coronavirus variant, stating on Monday that he was “deeply concerned” about policies such as that enacted by President Joe Biden.

Guterres’ opposition to travel bans echoes that of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), a U.N. agency, of the leaders of African countries targeted, and of Joe Biden in 2020.

While Biden accused predecessor Donald Trump of racism, “xenophobia,” and other epithets last year for limiting travel from countries experiencing high numbers of Chinese coronavirus cases, Biden banned travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi last week while on an extended five-day vacation in upscale Nantucket.

Guterres did not name Biden personally, as several other countries – most notably those in Western Europe, the Middle East, and Japan – enacted similar policies. Japan documented its first case of the new Chinese coronavirus variant, dubbed “Omicron,” on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after imposing its travel ban.

“I am now deeply concerned about the isolation of southern African countries due to new [Chinese coronavirus] travel restrictions,” Guterres wrote in a statement on Monday. “I appeal to all governments to consider repeated testing for travelers, together with other appropriate and truly effective measures, with the objective of avoiding the risk of transmission so as to allow for travel and economic engagement.”

Guterres also applauded South Africa for being the first country to identify Omicron and appeared to demand more global vaccine donations for the region.

“As I and others have long warned, low vaccine rates are a breeding ground for variants,” Guterres wrote. “The people of Africa cannot be blamed for the immorally low level of vaccinations available in Africa – and they should not be penalized for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information with the world.”

While a South African laboratory first fully identified Omicron, the nation’s government insists it is not a native South African variant and evidence suggests the first cases occurred in Botswana. The government of Botswana also denied that it is the origin of Omicron, accusing four foreign diplomats of bringing the virus into the country.

“We are concerned by attempts to stigmatize the variant and label a country where it was first detected as its country of origin,” Botswana Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti said on Sunday, refusing to identify the countries that the allegedly infected diplomats came from.
“That aspect of saying it originates from Botswana is out,” Dikoloti nonetheless insisted.

Guterres’ opposition to Biden-style travel bans follows several outraged statements from heads of state in southern Africa, most prominently South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“We are deeply disappointed by the decision of several countries to prohibit travel from a number of Southern African countries following the identification of the Omicron variant,” Ramaphosa said in a speech on Sunday.

Travellers walk near an electronic flight notice board displaying cancelled flights at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on November 27, 2021, after several countries banned flights from South Africa following the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant Omicron. (PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty)

“This is a clear and completely unjustified departure from the commitment that many of these countries made at the meeting of G20 countries in Rome last month. They pledged at that meeting to restart international travel in a safe and orderly manner.”

“These restrictions are unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our Southern African sister countries,” Ramaphosa continued, urging Biden and others to “urgently reverse” travel bans.

“The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant,” Ramaphosa asserted, citing the W.H.O.’s opposition to such bans.

Lazarus Chakwera, the president of Malawi, accused Biden and other leaders enacting travel bans of “Afrophobia” in a Facebook post on Sunday.

“[Chinese coronavirus] measures must be based on science, not Afrophobia,” Chakwera wrote, referring specifically to the travel bans by the United States and the West as “uncalled for.”

The W.H.O. regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said in a statement this week that travel bans “place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods” and urged “scientifically based” policies, instead.

Prior to becoming president, Biden appeared to agree with these sentiments. Following Trump’s initial ban on travel from China in early 2020 to slow the spread of Chinese coronavirus, Biden ranted on Twitter that the policy reflected “hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering.” Biden later accused Trump of enacting an “African Ban” explicitly “designed to make it harder for black and brown people to immigrate to the United States.”

Biden has not offered any clarity on the difference between his ban on African nation travel and Trump’s “African Ban” [sic] at press time.

The World Health Organization labeled Omicron a “variant of concern” last week based on the identification of significantly more mutations in its system than in previous variants. Scientists appear to know little about how it actually affects infected people, another fact that the W.H.O. identified as a cause for caution.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee, a doctor who has treated South African Omicron patients, told the U.K. Telegraph this week that she observed extremely mild symptoms in her patients, including children.

“We had one very interesting case, a kid, about six years old, with a temperature and a very high pulse rate, and I wondered if I should admit her. But when I followed up two days later, she was so much better,” Coetzee explained. She identified extreme fatigue as the most common symptom.

Coetzee warned that the virus may affect older people or those with chronic health problems more severely.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

Republican Senate Candidate J.D. Vance: 'Shut Down the Government Until Vaccine Mandate Ends'

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Author J.D. Vance, an Ohio U.S. Senate candidate, proposed Monday that Republicans should shut down the government until President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate ends.

Speaking at an Ohio GOP Senate Forum, Vance said Republicans should avoid giving Democrats a “bipartisan flag to wave around” as they did with the infrastructure bill, setting his sights on the upcoming debt limit.

“We gave the Democrats a bipartisan flag to wave around Washington DC that they are going to use to spend more money,” asserted Vance.

“Now, what should we be doing? Right now, we have the Biden administration enorcing a vaccine mandate down people’s throats,” he continued. “At the same time, we have a debt limit coming up. Instead of giving them a bipartisan flag to wave, we should shut down the government until the vaccine mandate ends.”

The suggestion solicited applause from the audience.

“We keep on getting out played, so as long as we keep sending people to Washington to get outplayed by the Democrats, we’re going to keep losing our country,” he concluded.

This past September, President Biden announced that the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will mandate that private companies with 100 or more employees implement vaccine requirements or require weekly negative tests. The president waited nearly two months before releasing the details of his plan, which would not have even taken effect until January of 2022.

A company in violation of the mandate could be fined $136,532.

The president’s plan encountered a roadblock in November when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court issued a temporary stay blocking the mandate while considering a permanent injunction.

“Because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate, the Mandate is hereby stayed pending further action by this court,” the judges wrote.

(L-R) Greycroft Partner Ellie Wheeler, Revolution’s Rise of Rest Seed Fund Managing Partner J.D. Vance, and FirstMark Capital Managing Director Catherine Ulrich speak onstage during Day 2 of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 at Moscone Center on September 6, 2018 in San Francisco, California. (Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)

Shortly after, OSHA suspended the implementation of Biden’s vaccine mandate in response to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. However, the White House has continued to urge businesses to follow through with the plan despite the court order.

“Let me be very clear: our message to businesses right now is to move forward with measures that will make their workplaces safer and protect them and their workforces from COVID-19,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a press conference mid-November. “Nothing has changed.”

18 Democrats Will Abandon the House — More than Triple GOP Needs to Win Back Majority

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) ambitions of keeping the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives past the midterm elections next year are dwindling as droves of vulnerable Democrats have announced they are leaving their current seats to either retire or seek a different office instead of fighting in a brutal reelection.

Republicans only need to net five seats to pick up the House majority after the midterms. So far, more than triple the amount of Democrats (18 total) have decided to officially call it quits on the House and have left their seats open for a fight, giving Republicans a chance to gain another seat since House Republicans only need to net five seats to gain the majority and retire Pelosi as Speaker.

Vulnerable Democrats will be facing tough reelection battles across the county, having to campaign in districts that more than likely have different lines after redistricting in addition to their having sided with President Joe Biden on many key partisan issues, as his approval numbers after only holding office for ten months have tanked.

This week, vulnerable Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), a loyal confidant of Pelosi, was the eighteenth House Democrat to announce he will be leaving the House to join the crowded race for New York governor. He will be leaving behind a largely suburban district, which would be tough for Democrats to hold without a strong incumbent. This willl potentially give Republicans a pickup seat in New York because Democrats have struggled to find new candidates willing to run for office.

Suozzi joined the ten Democrats who announced they are retiring from public office after the current term, which expires in January 2023: Reps. Filemon Vela (D-TX) and Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) announced their retirements in March; Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), the former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairwoman, announced she would not seek reelection in April; scandal-ridden Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) announced he would be retiring in August; House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) announced, along with longtime Reps. David Price (D-NC) and Mike Doyle (D-PA), they would both not be seeking reelection in October; Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) announced, along with longtime Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) and House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, they would both not seek reelection in November.

Additionally, seven have announced they are running for a different office: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) announced in April he would be running for the U.S. Senate seat in his home state being vacated by retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH); Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) announced in May he is running for governor in Florida, after previously being governor in the state as a Republican from 2007 to 2011; Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) announced in June she would run for a U.S. Senate seat in the Sunshine State; Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) announced in August, he would be running for the U.S. Senate seat in his home state being vacated by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA); Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) announced in September her candidacy for the Los Angeles mayoral race to replace outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti (D); Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) announced in October he would run for Maryland Attorney General; and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) announced in November he would be running for the U.S. Senate seat in his home state being vacated by retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

With the news of retirements and members seeking other offices, there is rumored to be more from Democrats abandoning ship in the coming months leading up to the election. In addition, there have been reports of Pelosi herself contemplating leaving elected office.

Mike Berg, the spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is in charge of helping Republican incumbents and winning back the House majority, told Breitbart News exclusively that “Nobody wants to run as a House Democrat this cycle because all Democrats’ majority has given the American people is higher prices, skyrocketing crime, and open borders.”

Breitbart News has extensively reported on Pelosi’s majority crumbling in the past. Democrats have struggled to find new candidates to run in some congressional districts, along with some Democrat recruits dropping out of races. This comes as some members are yet to announce their intentions for next year, which will continue to sink Pelosi’s chances of keeping the majority.

At the same time, Democrats will have to get elected in some entirely new districts. In October, embattled Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) announced that he is abandoning his constituents and his seat to run in a new district instead of for reelection in his now-competitive congressional district. Republican opponents have long sought out the seat he currently holds.

In September, a report from Politico outlined that House Democrats spent their last two elections (2018 and 2020) talking about their achievements unseating members in red districts — which have since gotten more competitive over the years. This happened as the majority of the districts where millions of dollars and hundreds of hours were spent fighting Republicans could disappear after redistricting.

President Joe Biden saw his lowest job approval numbers. Biden’s job approval found a new low of 36.4 percent during the first nine months of his presidency, according to a Zogby poll. While the poll also found that 61.3 percent of the respondents gave Biden a negative rating, the president was underwater with all age categories, particularly the younger generation of voters between 18 and 29, which viewed him 63 percent negatively and only 34 percent positively.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.