For the second press briefing in a row, the White House took a beating from reporters due to President Joe Biden’s personal physician hiding from hungry reporters’ questions on the state of Biden’s COVID treatment, recovery, and overall health. You know it's bad when reporters from CBS News, The New York Times, and NewsMax all grilled the White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha on the administration’s lack of transparency.
Due to Biden’s bout of COVID, and the fact that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre can’t take questions from the media without stepping on rakes, Jha was trotted out to handle all questions related to Biden’s illness and other public health-related topics.
CBS News Radio White House correspondent Steven Portnoy was the first to take on Jha over Biden’s personal physician Kevin O’Connor’s absence.
“One of the questions has been asked and we’ll have to raise it again. is why the President's personal physician is not here? Are you familiar with a reason? Has the President decided not to send his physician here to answer our questions the way that his predecessors have decided to send their physicians here?" Portnoy asked.
Jha responded that “you’ve heard every day from the President's physician through his detailed accounting of his assessment, his plan.” Adding that “I have been speaking to both his personal physician. I speak to him every single day at length.”
Portnoy wasn’t having it. He continued grilling Jha with no luck of him giving a real answer:
Forgive me. There is a history here in this room of President's physicians standing here to take questions, and in part, it's because some of your colleagues in the medical profession do have questions and they’ve asked us to ask those questions about why the President’s doctor ordered him to stop taking Crestor & Eliquis. You have done your best to communicate the answer that the President’s physician has given. But are you familiar with the reason why the President decided not to send his doctor out to answer questions?
Later on in the briefing, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy brought up the subject again by asking if “this a situation where Dr. O'Connor does not want to come and talk about the President's health or where the President doesn't want Dr. O'Connor talking about his health?”
In response, Jha claimed he’s “spoken both to the President and to Dr. O'Connor on an ongoing basis and neither of them has expressed a preference. Dr. O'Connor at any point has not said he doesn't want to come and the President has not at any point said he doesn't want Dr. O'Connor to come. So, I would say neither of those is correct.”
Proving once again why he’s one of the best reporters in the briefing room, Doocy went after Biden’s photo ops taken during his time in quarantine:
DOOCY: Ok and you said again today the President is following the CDC guidelines very quickly. It seems like there are people in the residence taking his photo with no mask on. I was looking at the guidance for COVID-positive people, I don't see any carveouts for something like that. So is he really following the CDC guidelines?
JHA: Yeah, so, if you— so a couple of things. What’s really important is anybody who has interacted with the President, and it has been a much smaller footprint, has been socially distanced as much as possible. They’ve all been wearing N95s, and whenever possible we have done this outside, with windows open.
DOOCY: Isn’t the guidance for the person with COVID to be wearing the n95 when there are people around as well?
JHA: So, look Peter, I think if you think about the President he does generally wear a mask when he’s around other people. He sometimes takes the mask off when he’s getting a photo taken. He’s been—most of his interactions with others he has been wearing a mask. The bottom line is that everybody around him is fully vaccinated and boosted, and he has been following CDC guidelines very carefully.
Last but not least, there was this moment from the briefing which was, let’s just say bizarre:
REPORTER: "I wanted to go back to Monkeypox and ask what the government's response is to some of the backlash regarding the messaging & language that could perpetuate homophobia and transphobia like we saw during the HIV epidemic." pic.twitter.com/ifQhQGrgRz
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) July 25, 2022
To read the relevant transcript of the July 25 White House press briefing click "expand":
White House press briefing
July 25, 2022
4:53:27 p.m. Eastern [via C-SPAN]STEVEN PORTNOY: One of the questions has been asked and we’ll have to raise it again. is why the President's personal physician is not here? Are you familiar with a reason? Has the President decided not to send his physician here to answer our questions the way that his predecessors have decided to send their physicians here?
DOCTOR ASHISH JHA: KJP, I don’t know if you want to start it. I’m happy to give my thoughts. Or do you want me to just give mine?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Why don’t you start in, I’ll come in.
JHA: Yeah, so look. You’ve heard every day from the President's physician through his detailed accounting of his assessment, his plan. I have been speaking to both his personal physician. I speak to him every single day at length. With the President on an ongoing basis. And the bottom line is the President has had thankfully because he has double vaccinated and double boosted, he’s had relatively a mild upper respiratory infection. And in that context we have provided I think an extraordinary amount of transparency about his care when he got tested positive. How he’s done each day. the evolving nature of his symptoms. Is his runny nose a little worse, a little bit better? Like we have been very very open and transparent with all of that data.
And what I am able to do is obviously provide that broader context of how to think about the President's condition in the context of the broader COVID response that we have. But the President's physician I think has been very, his words have been very clear. And you have heard from him through his letters every single day. -- From him every day.
PORTNOY: Forgive me. There is a history here in this room of President's physicians standing here to take questions, and in part, it's because some of your colleagues in the medical profession do have questions and they’ve asked us to ask those questions about why the President’s doctor ordered him to stop taking Crestor & Eliquis. You have done your best to communicate the answer that the President’s physician has given. But are you familiar with the reason why the President decided not to send his doctor out to answer questions?
[...]
PETER DOOCY: To follow up on Dr. O'Connor not being here, is this a situation where Dr. O'Connor does not want to come and talk about the President's health or where the President doesn't want Dr. O'Connor talking about his health?
JHA: I will tell you, I have spoken both to the President and to Dr. O'Connor on an ongoing basis and neither of them has expressed a preference. Dr. O'Connor at any point has not said he doesn't want to come and the President has not at any point said he doesn't want Dr. O'Connor to come. So, I would say neither of those is correct.
DOOCY: Ok and you said again today the President is following the CDC guidelines very quickly. It seems like there are people in the residence taking his photo with no mask on. I was looking at the guidance for COVID-positive people, I don't see any carveouts for something like that. So is he really following the CDC guidelines?
JHA: Yeah, so, if you— so a couple of things. What’s really important is anybody who has interacted with the President, and it has been a much smaller footprint, has been socially distanced as much as possible. They’ve all been wearing N95s, and whenever possible we have done this outside, with windows open.
DOOCY: Isn’t the guidance for the person with COVID to be wearing the n95 when there are people around as well?
JHA: So, look Peter, I think if you think about the President he does generally wear a mask when he’s around other people. He sometimes takes the mask off when he’s getting a photo taken. He’s been—most of his interactions with others he has been wearing a mask. The bottom line is that everybody around him is fully vaccinated and boosted, and he has been following CDC guidelines very carefully.
[...]
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you, I wanted to go back to monkeypox and ask what the government's response is to some of the backlash regarding the messaging which could perpetuate homophobia and transphobia like we saw during the HIV epidemic.
JHA: Are there specific things you are concerned about? I mean I think very clear at this point that the community most affected is the LGBTQ community. This is one of the reasons why I said we have been deeply engaged with them, both to share information, also to learn more, make sure that everybody is communicating in a way that is both scientifically accurate and respectful. You know, obviously, it's really important that we do not use this moment to propagate homophobic or trans-phobic messaging, and I think it is really important that we stick to the science, stick to the evidence, and do it in a way that’s respectful of people.
