MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell and her Thursday guests decried the fact that President Biden won’t be able to govern in the name of “health and science” now that his public transportation mask mandate being struck down in federal court.
Apparently unaware that mask mandates are being removed all over the country, Mitchell asked Washington Post White House bureau chief Ashley Parker how the administration could possibly respond, “How does the White House see this unfolding now that they're not asking for a temporary restraining order to continue the masking while the CDC evaluates whether, you know, the uptick in cases from this subvariant is causing more hospitalizations and still on planes, we're seeing the CEOs of various planes, you know, airlines saying masks are off?”
Parker conceded that the administration was in a tough situation, “this is sort of another example that highlights this tension the administration is dealing with, which is wanting to do what is best for the health of the country, wanting to, as Jen Psaki said, sort of preserve the authority of the CDC that's obviously a very deliberate contrast to President Biden's predecessor.”
Despite young children being known less vulnerable to the virus, Parker was also concerned about people removing their masks in the middle of their flights, “And you even saw that in the reaction when, mid-flight, you know, pilots came on and announced you don't have to wear masks, there are stories of people cheering and then they’re stories of people quite panicked, who are maybe flying with a child under five who can't get a vaccine and has a tough time keeping on a mask as everyone around them unmasks.”
Mitchell then turned to New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker and lamented: “Peter, the politics of this, you know, COVID was already politicized. They inherited that but this has become so confusing.”
After Mitchell cited different cities having different rules and different rules for domestic versus international flights, Baker concurred: “Yeah, this is one more symptom of our polarization, right? This is our red America/blue America divide. Who knew something as simple as the covering of your face in the middle of a pandemic would be such a wedge issue but it has. And it’s a definition of where you stand these days.”
Baker also summarized the administration’s latest position as, “sort of, throwing up of the hands. You know, yes, they want to keep the authority because it's a bad precedent to allow a court to take it away, but they're no longer really fighting at this point for mandates whether it be masks or vaccines or anything else, that they recognize that stage of this pandemic is essentially over as a matter of politics and things like masks are going to be a personal decision.”
Nobody at MSNBC picked up on the contradiction of the administration is suing, arguing the mask mandates are necessary for public health, while not asking for a restraining order and recognizes mask mandates are over.
This segment was sponsored by Safelite.
Here is a transcript for the April 21 show:
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
4/21/2022
12:39 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: How does the White House see this unfolding now that they're not asking for a temporary restraining order to continue the masking while the CDC evaluates whether, you know, the uptick in cases from this subvariant is causing more hospitalizations and still on planes, we're seeing the CEOs of various planes, you know, airlines saying masks are off?
ASHLEY PARKER: Well, you saw just in the White House's response and a little bit of the time it took the White House to respond, some of the confusion, some of the politics at play, and just the reality that they were initially caught off guard by this ruling and this is sort of another example that highlights this tension the administration is dealing with, which is wanting to do what is best for the health of the country, wanting to, as Jen Psaki said, sort of preserve the authority of the CDC that's obviously a very deliberate contrast to President Biden's predecessor.
This administration has made placing health and science first and foremost while also dealing with the reality that we are two years into the pandemic, that it is a deeply politicized and partisan issue; that a lot of people don't want to wear masks. And you even saw that in the reaction when, mid-flight, you know, pilots came on and announced you don't have to wear masks, there are stories of people cheering and then they’re stories of people quite panicked, who are maybe flying with a child under five who can't get a vaccine and has a tough time keeping on a mask as everyone around them unmasks. So, this is, sort of, ground zero for the challenges this administration has been dealing with, with COVID since they took office.
MITCHELL: And Peter, the politics of this, you know, COVID was already politicized. They inherited that but this has become so confusing. You’ve got New York State not taking the masks off, you’ve got Philadelphia putting masks on as well, but you have situations where you're on the subway and you're masked and you get off the subway and you're not. You know, airports are not masked. Domestic flights aren’t, international flights are.
PETER BAKER: Yeah, this is one more symptom of our polarization, right? This is our red America/blue America divide. Who knew something as simple as the covering of your face in the middle of a pandemic would be such a wedge issue but it has. And it’s a definition of where you stand these days.
You may find that masks are perfectly a good idea in red states but you are politically pushed, you know, away from them by the zeitgeist of the moment, kind of inversely in the blue states obviously, there's a great deal, I think, pressure on people, peer pressure, to wear masks in public places. So I, it's amazing, I think, and one more symptom of our—of our-- times. And you're right that the confusing messages, the sort of, you know, patchwork, quilt of—of-- requirements and rules will only confuse people going forward.
I think in the end what you see in the Biden Administration response to this is, sort of, throwing up of the hands. You know, yes, they want to keep the authority because it's a bad precedent to allow a court to take it away, but they're no longer really fighting at this point for mandates whether it be masks or vaccines or anything else, that they recognize that stage of this pandemic is essentially over as a matter of politics and things like masks are going to be a personal decision.
