CNN’s Tapper and Borger: Biden Will Be Blamed if Covid Flares Up And Americans Miss Their 4th of July Barbecues

CNN news personalities Jake Tapper and Gloria Borger predicted that President Joe Biden will be blamed if Americans are unable to attend 4th of July barbecues due to some sort of worsening of the coronavirus pandemic.

One year ago, Biden’s predecessor was promising there would soon be zero cases, and that the coronavirus was less serious than the flu. He spent the intervening year spreading dangerous misinformation, mocking mitigation efforts, and actively superspreading the virus at White House and campaign events, until his ouster following the violent insurrection he incited.

President Biden addressed the nation this week on the anniversary of the national COVID-19 shutdown, and in part of that speech dangled July 4th celebrations as an incentive for Americans to continue working at mitigating the virus by getting vaccinated and following CDC guidance:

If we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th, there’s a good chance you, your families, and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbeque and celebrate Independence Day. That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.

After this long hard year, that will make this Independence Day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.

But to get there, we can’t let our guard down.

This fight is far from order — from over. As I told the woman in Pennsylvania, “I will tell you the truth.”

A July 4th with your loved ones is the goal. But a goal — a lot can happen; conditions can change.

But Tapper and Borger saw political peril in that section of the address, and more broadly, Tapper accused Biden of “underselling and overdelivering,” except, presumably, on barbecues:

TAPPER: And, Gloria, today, the White House would not say what specific metrics they wanted to see to make that 4 four goal happen.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

TAPPER: What do you make of that? And if we see a surge of cases, for whatever reason, including the new variants, does — is there a risk here for President Biden? Will he be blamed?

BORGER: Yes, I think there is a risk.

And as he said last night in his speech, he said, look, if I fail, I’m going to tell you I failed. I’m going to tell you the truth. And I’m going to be honest with you.

So, we — I think we can take him at his word on that. There’s variation in the states on all of this. And I think that, if there’s a surge of cases, we don’t know why there would be a surge of cases. Maybe it’s not only because of vaccine hesitancy, but maybe it’s because, as our poll shows, 77 percent of the people think that the — that we’re through COVID, basically, and they let down their guard

TAPPER: Yes.

BORGER: There are all kinds of reasons that things can still go awry.

And I think sort of setting these deadlines was not only risky business, but I think it was a way for the White House, which has been talking about the dark winter for so long, it was a way for them to give people a little optimism, like, oh, wait a minute, it is really around the corner if we just do our part.

Tapper and Borger were also vocal and consistent critics of then-President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Watch above via CNN.